Trade Secrets & Employee Mobility

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana issued an opinion on November 24, 2020 in Titan Oil & Gas Consultants LLC v. David W. Willis and RIGUP, Inc., a case addressing application of a non-competition provision in the independent contractor context in the oil and gas drilling and production industry in the Permian Basin and elsewhere. Titan addressed non-competition claims of interest both to those focused on the Texas arcana of the state’s restrictive covenant statute and jurisprudence and to those more generally interested in applying ...

Non-competes are going to be harder to enforce in Washington State.  On May 8, 2019, Governor Jay Inslee signed the “Act Relating to Restraints, Including Noncompetition Covenants, on Persons Engaging in Lawful Professions, Trades or Businesses,” which was passed by both houses of the state legislature in April.

The new law will become effective January 1, 2020, and will render unenforceable non-competition provisions signed by employees earning less than $100,000 and independent contractors earning less than $250,000 annually.  Other important provisions of the law are as ...

Our Epstein Becker Green colleague Angel Gomez, a Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment and Litigation practices, based in Los Angeles, wrote an article for Law360 titled "In Light of Snowden: How to Use Independent Contractors." (Read the full version - subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

Recent events connected with Edward Snowden have captured the world's attention. Snowden, an admitted leaker of national security secrets, was, at the time of the leaks, an employee of the well-known consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton — Booz Allen Hamilton was a ...