On January 1, 2022, amendments to the Illinois Freedom to Work Act, 820 ILCS 90/1, et seq. (the “Act”), became effective, trumpeting reforms and limitations on an employer’s ability to enter into covenants not to compete and covenants not to solicit with certain categories of employees whose actual or expected annualized rate of earnings fall below certain thresholds.
Now, just two short years later, the Illinois state legislature has introduced four different bills containing proposed amendments to the Act that would undermine, if not completely obliterate, the Act’s ...
Last summer, the New York State legislature made waves when it passed a bill that effectively would have banned noncompete agreements. New York’s Governor vetoed that bill in late December 2023. This year, however, it is expected that the legislature will consider, and maybe pass, a less draconian bill that the Governor may be more likely sign. Instead of an outright ban, such a bill might limit the use of noncompetes by, for example, prohibiting noncompetes only for certain types of employees, such as low wage earners.
While the business and legal communities await the state ...
Now on Spilling Secrets, our podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law: Restrictive covenants are evolving at a record pace right now at both the federal and state levels. Employers are struggling to keep up, and that’s especially true in the health care industry.
In this episode of Spilling Secrets, Epstein Becker Green attorneys Katherine G. Rigby, Erik W. Weibust, Glenn P. Prives, and Denise Merna Dadika discuss restrictive covenants in relation to physician groups and other health care organizations employing direct care providers.
Explore Epstein Becker Green's 50-State Noncompete Survey, now featuring a 50-state health care supplement.
In a bombshell ruling last year that upended longstanding Delaware law, the Delaware Chancery Court ruled in Ainslie v. Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., 2023 WL 106924 (Del. Ch. Jan. 4, 2023), that forfeiture-for-competition clauses, under which departing employees must forfeit certain long-term incentive compensation if they join a competitor, are akin to post-employment noncompetes and other restraints of trade. As a result, the Chancery Court determined these forfeiture provisions should be analyzed under a reasonableness standard rather than the employee choice doctrine ...
Thomson Reuters Practical Law has released the 2024 update to “Trade Secrets Litigation,” co-authored by Peter A. Steinmeyer.
The Note discusses trade secrets litigation for employers whose employees or former employees have misappropriated trade secrets. This Note describes pre-litigation investigations, sending cease and desist letters, and contacting law enforcement. It also addresses filing a legal action, including forum selection and choice of law issues, deciding whether to include the employee’s new employer and third parties, common causes of action ...
Now on Spilling Secrets, our podcast series on the future of non-compete and trade secrets law:
On an employee’s first day, employers can begin protecting trade secrets by ensuring they maintain ownership over all intellectual property (IP) that the employee will create.
In this episode of Spilling Secrets, Epstein Becker Green attorneys A. Millie Warner, James P. Flynn, Hemant Gupta, and Adelee Traylor dive into the key steps employers can take to maintain IP ownership, including using the right verb tense in employee IP provisions.
Thomson Reuters Practical Law has released the 2024 update to “Preparing for Non-Compete Litigation,” co-authored by Peter A. Steinmeyer.
The Note describes the steps an employer can take to prepare to successfully litigate a non-compete action, the primary options for enforcing a non-compete agreement, and the strategic decisions involved with each option. It discusses gathering evidence, assessing the enforceability of a non-compete, considerations before initiating legal action, cease and desist letters, seeking declaratory judgments, damages, and ...
Thomson Reuters Practical Law has released the 2024 update to “Garden Leave Provisions in Employment Agreements,” co-authored by Peter A. Steinmeyer and Lauri F. Rasnick, Members of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Chicago and New York offices, respectively.
The Note discusses garden leave provisions in employment agreements as an alternative or a companion to traditional employee non-compete agreements. It addresses the differences between garden leave and non-compete provisions, the benefits and drawbacks ...
Our colleague attorney Phillip Antablin recently joined a roundtable discussion hosted by Russell Beck, regarding California’s expanded anti-restrictive covenants laws under Business and Professions Code Section 16600.
Phillip joined as many as 50 restrictive covenant, trade secrets, and employee mobility lawyers from around the country to discuss:
- the amendments to Business and Professions Code Section 16600 the new notice requirement to current and former employees that their restrictive covenant is void;
- Section 16600’s application as a whole, including Section ...
2023 started off with a bang, and it is certainly not ending with a whimper. On January 4, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the settlement of two enforcement actions against employers arising out of their use and enforcement of noncompetes. The very next day, the FTC proposed a rule that would ban noncompetes nationwide if enacted (which we do not believe will ever happen), with only a very narrow exception for noncompetes entered into in connection with the sale of a business.
The year only continued to get more turbulent in this area of law, with Minnesota banning ...
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Recent Updates
- Spilling Secrets Podcast: After the Block - What’s Next for Employers and Non-Competes?
- Georgia Supreme Court Allows for Employee Non-Solicitation Agreements That Lack Express Geographic Limits
- Continued Employment May Constitute Sufficient Consideration for Noncompete Agreements in Connecticut, but Uncertainty Remains
- What the FTC Non-Compete Ban Block Means for Employers - Employment Law This Week Video
- Texas Court Shoots Down FTC Noncompete Ban Nationwide