Employee noncompete restrictions are supposed to provide a company with a means to preserve its legitimate competitive interests when an employment relationship ends. But they can also be used by unscrupulous employers to make demands that outside of the guardrails of the judicial system would resemble extortion.
This post discusses a recent example of arguably
You may have heard something in the news about a former employee getting caught holding onto his prior employer’s documents after losing his job. This example is unusual, to say the least. And setting aside your political leanings, let’s look at how similar scenarios play out for the rest of us.
A recently filed trade secret misappropriation lawsuit in the Michigan Eastern District Federal Court is a good reminder for both employers and individuals about the dangers stemming from not protecting or wrongfully using confidential or trade secret information.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Van Dyke Horn LLC, a public relations company.
President Biden signed an Executive Order broadly targeting anti-competitive tactics that disadvantage smaller businesses and people.
One aspect of this order targets the use of noncompete agreements. Under the Order, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is encouraged to ban or limit noncompete agreements.
McDonald’s recently announced it terminated its chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, for having a consensual relationship with an employee. This termination presents a buffet of employment law and HR issues upon which one could devour. However, I want to focus on the non-compete restriction that Mr. Easterbrook ultimately agreed to upon ending his employment.
Michigan’s Attorney General (AG) Dana Nessel joined 17 other State Attorneys General to respond to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) request for public comments. These comments concern the FTC’s public hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. Ms. Nessel’s response echoes a growing concern across the United States about the use and
Despite a strong jobs report on May 3, 2019, wage growth continues to be a disappointment. See Axios post, “The Mystery of Sluggish Wages.”
I don’t have all the answers, but I can point to at least a partial explanation for this mystery; the employment market is often contractually rigged by employers
The office share company WeWork Cos. reached a settlement with attorneys general of New York and Illinois over requiring most employees to sign over-broad noncompete agreements.
The Wall Street Journal, by Eliot Brown, reported that WeWork previously required most employees, including baristas and receptionists, to sign agreements barring them from working at similar businesses for
On January 8, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal from a former Stryker Corp. sales representative. The appeal arose from a case involving a non-compete agreement between a Louisiana employee and a Michigan employer.
The non-compete agreement contained a forum-selection clause stating that any dispute arising out of the agreement must
A former employee recently sued MedMar Inc. and its related companies. The suit, Greenswag v MedMar Inc., pending in the Cook County Circuit Court, alleges the defendants made misrepresentations about the employment opportunity to induce him to sign a non-compete restriction.
I haven’t reviewed the complaint, but these sorts of claims are often unsuccessful.