If you are prepared to accept “bold” as a substitute for “reasoned and sensible”, then there is much to like in the government’s formal response to its 2020 consultation on restrictive covenants, which was finally published last month. It is this which seeks to explain the thinking behind the proposal we covered here – to … Continue Reading
In our blog here, we noted EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s focus on the evolution of cartels in recent years, with the emergence of purchasing cartels and the focus in the US on ‘no-poach’ agreements, whereby companies agree not to recruit each other’s workers and/or fix wages. This is similar to a purchasing cartel, except … Continue Reading
Of course it could just be coincidence, but scarcely hours after my post last week concerning the dearth of the employment law candidates for the Brexit red-tape bonfire, out pops a Gov.uk policy paper on “Smarter Regulation to Grow the Economy” containing the first five suggested victims. And what a woeful little bunch they are, … Continue Reading
The metaverse is poised to reshape the way we live and work. Employment law in real life is vexing enough, with US employers required to navigate the complex federal, state and local laws and regulations that impact the employment relationship. Now some employers and businesses are making the leap into the virtual world, where employment … Continue Reading
Squire Patton Boggs Summer Associate Jacob Williams details how new legislation in Colorado will impact employers’ use of non-competition covenants in the Centennial State. Adding to a growing nationwide trend placing restrictions on the use of non-competition agreements in employment contracts, Colorado is the most recent state to adopt exacting restrictions on employers’ use of … Continue Reading
Welcome to Part 2 of the 2021 Year-End Edition of the State Law Round-Up, covering states in the second half of the alphabet. Part 1, covering the first part of the alphabet, can be found here. Maine: Maine’s “ban-the-box” law, HP 845, went into effect October 18, 2021. The law prohibits private employers from requesting … Continue Reading
Restrictive covenants are a common feature of many employment contracts. They are favoured by employers which want to ensure that departing employees will not solicit business, compete, poach clients or colleagues, and so on. When they are needed they are really needed and so this is an important question. It is always good practice to … Continue Reading
State legislatures have been busy in 2021 passing new employment-related laws. Here we look at some of the highlights of new laws in Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Connecticut is the latest state to prohibit discrimination based upon traits historically associated with race, including hair texture, protective hairstyles such as wigs … Continue Reading
Here are two more answers to questions raised at our “Employment Law in 2021 and Beyond” webinar last week. Answers to the immigration-related questions are on their way. If you make representations to the non-compete consultation, will your name be published? When might we see an outcome from that consultation? Do we know when the … Continue Reading
Back in 2016 the Government published a Call for Evidence to better understand, it said, how non-compete clauses in employment contracts are used and why, and to assess the benefits and disadvantages associated with them. The Call was a mess in every sense, legally, practically and even grammatically, as we said here nowhere in the whole … Continue Reading
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency has changed life as we know it, including by severely disrupting business on a nationwide scale. In some cases, employers have been forced to temporarily close their doors and cease operations, while others have had to make radical changes to the workplace in order to maintain operations. … Continue Reading
The first Supreme Court judgment on employment competition in a century was handed down recently – and it is good news for employers.… Continue Reading
It’s been an active few weeks since our last State Law Round-Up in mid-April 2019, with a number of bills being signed into new laws and case developments impacting employers in many US states over the past few weeks. Colorado Failure to Pay Wages as Theft Effective January 1, 2020, an employer’s failure to pay … Continue Reading
Most companies doing business in California are aware of California’s long-standing public policy in favor of employee mobility over an employer’s ability to impose a provision prohibiting an employee from going to work for a competitor post-termination, which is embedded in California Business & Professions Code Section 16600. Particularly where the employer is headquartered outside … Continue Reading
On March 8, 2018, the Colorado Court of Appeals issued much-needed guidance regarding C.R.S. 8-2-113(3) in Crocker v. Greater Colorado Anesthesia, P.C. (“GCA”). This statutory provision provides that “any covenant not to compete provision of an employment, partnership, or corporate agreement between physicians which restricts the right of a physician to practice medicine . . … Continue Reading
Restrictive covenants in employment contracts are a bit like lifejackets: it’s nice to have them there and you hope that they will fit you in an emergency but you would really prefer not to have to use them. That said, if the time comes and your employees are approached by a competitor in breach of … Continue Reading
On April 3, 2015, we reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had sent letters to numerous publicly-traded U.S. companies requesting their nondisclosure agreements, severance and settlement agreements, and other contracts entered into after the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) to determine whether the documents unduly interfere … Continue Reading
The deadline for responses to the BIS call for evidence in relation to the use of restrictive covenants expires on 19 July. The Call contains no hard evidence at all to support any suggestion that covenants stifle start-ups. It admits that this is only an assumption, though even those are normally based on something. It … Continue Reading
On 16 June, following a Government Call for Evidence, we sent out a survey to over 4,000 of our clients and contacts in HR and Legal teams to ascertain attitudes to the use of restrictive covenants in contracts of employment and their inhibiting impact, if any, on competitiveness in the UK market. Our respondents ranged … Continue Reading
“We want to ensure that when used, covenants are justified, well-constructed, targeted and reasonable. There needs to be a balance which ensures the employer can protect its business interests when staff move on and the worker is not unfairly disadvantaged when they (SIC) decide to leave or start up their own business“. So says the … Continue Reading
Last month the Government was hard at work, looking at ways to drive forward the UK economy. What was it doing, I hear you ask…was it Brexit? Was it the EU-US Free Trade Agreement? A potential saviour for the Port Talbot steelworks? British Home Stores? In a word, no. Dissatisfied with the UK placing second … Continue Reading
Here is a question for you – do you know what an agronomist is? Anybody? Well, he/she applies the science and technology of producing and using plants for such purposes as food, fuel, and soil management. Well done if you got that. If not, you heard it first at the Employment Law Worldview blog. I … Continue Reading
Earlier this spring the Polish Supreme Court decided that a company taking over a business is not bound by the non-competition covenant entered into by the previous employer. Normally you would expect the incoming employer to want the covenant to remain in force. However, to enforce a post-termination non-competition clause in Poland requires the employer … Continue Reading
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently sent letters to numerous, unnamed publicly-traded US companies requesting every nondisclosure agreement, confidentiality agreement, severance agreement, and settlement agreement the companies have entered into with employees since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) was enacted, as well as any other documents related to … Continue Reading
