Sign New Hampshire NDA Fast

Document type sign nda new hampshire fast

I'm Gary Feldman I'm Tamsin Kaplan so where David's mom we're two of the lawyers in the employment group welcome to our presentation on some new developments and employment law I did want to talk about upcoming legislation in particular I wanted to focus on non-compete legislation we do have a few more minutes many of you have probably seen the news that Governor Patrick has proposed a bill which would ban non-competition agreements in Massachusetts in fact there have been three bills pending for about four or five years that to some extent either ban or reduce the scope of legal non-competes in Massachusetts right now now there are vs at 18 I think they're 18 states that have either made non-competes completely unenforceable or have proposed legislation to make non-competes completely unenforceable or have in some way reduced the scope of non-competes the universe of non camisa can be legally enforced in those states so there appears to be a trend toward limiting non-competes in Massachusetts up until this time well at this time non-competes are absolutely enforceable the way the courts look at them is to weigh the interests of the company in protecting their legitimate business interests their good faith their goodwill their relationships their reputation they're confidential information against the interests of the employee in pursuing a livelihood in pursuing their chosen career and they look at non-competes that way and typically they'll be enforced if they're reasonable and duration reasonable in scope and don't unreasonably burden the employee um while reasonably protecting the interests of the company so that's the way they're enforced in Massachusetts its ass balancing there are certain exceptions in Massachusetts for physicians for social workers for nurses and for people in the broadcast industry I've never quite understood the one and four lawyers ever lawyer we always get the goodies because we write the laws um I've never understood the people that brought how the broadcast industry how they got good lobby we exactly just DJs you can't have non-competes right for example so what's happening with this proposed legislation and how is it going to affect you right now the governor's proposal is legislation is being fast-tracked at the Statehouse and we expect that it will become law there's been you know over the years all this work toward limiting or banning non-competes the important thing to remember is that really the the concepts the principles that we've been talking about that I haven't I'm out with my cons with my clients all these years still apply which is that you always want to protect your business in a way that is the most with restrictive covenants that are as narrowly tailored as possible to protect your interests without overly burdening or limiting your employees so non-compete switch say you cannot go out and work say in this industry or work with our direct competitors are fairly broad their broad restrictions and typically we've used them only for situations where we absolutely need them protect to protect our interests because we have other tools for protecting our interests such as confidentiality agreements if you want to protect your business information your clients information your product information your financial information you can have not a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement with salespeople people who go out and interact with your clients with your customers you can have a non-solicitation agreement they might go to a competitor but they're not allowed to grab your clients or they're not allowed to use your endures there are other ways such as trade secret agreements that you can protect your interests you could have non solicitations that prevent somebody for example from soliciting your employees and your contractors when they leave so there's not going to be some kind of a lift out they're not going to raid your your staff so i encourage you to be thinking about your non-compete to the extent that you have them in place and whether there's a more narrowly tailored way to protect exactly what it is you're trying to protect in that situation without having a broad across the board non-compete and to the extent that you can do that you're going to be in good shape because this new non-compete legislation while banning non-competes does allow specifically for agreements not to solicit or higher away employees or independent contractors agreements not just litter to the solicitor transact business with customers it specifically still allows for non-disclosure agreements it specifically still allows for non-competes in connection with a sale of a business for employees who own at least ten percent of the company and receive some significant consideration as part of the purchase of the business and it still protects and allows you to use no rehire provisions so if somebody leaves they have no right to be rehired they waive their right to be rehired so I don't know if you had area is anything to add but my advice at this point is to expect that at some time in the future your broad non-competes may not be enforceable and so we want it to the extent possible again protect our interests with these other tools that we have depending on what exactly it is that we're trying to protect we can use these other tools there is some strong opposition to the bill me that look it feels like now that the governor is behind it there's a there's a momentum there's a groundswell Kasese has been bills that have been introduced as several them that have kicked around and gotten no we're in this the first time that the governor has gotten behind it but you know the emcs of massachusetts fidelity a lot of the big employers have come out strongly against it so we'll see I think there's still an expectation at this time this will get through and as the governor points to and a lot of people in support of these this legislation point to California has for many years as we all know band non-compete and it has certainly not slowed the pace of and pace of innovation and worker mobility in California and in fact although associated industries and a lot of big companies are against it this is part of an economic growth a piece of legislation so I mean it's it's the governor's view in the view of many that reducing on competes actually fuels business and fuels the economy because it encourages innovation you're not shutting people down one of the bills that has been pending the Brownsberger bill had what's called guard and leave where if you pay continue to pay the person for that period you can ask them to sit out or sit in their garden this particular bill does not include that I I think that's a good point i suspect that that may evolve as the bill goes through the committee process that it may be that you can pay somebody to sit out california doesn't have that california no non-compete California non capitis avoid us against public policy and he's non-compete agreement not you protect trade secrets protect confidential information but there's no way shape or form that any non-compete agreement can be enforced would be seen valid into California law and my understanding is that the governor's bill is modeled on that I don't let this course exams enhance my in my experience oftentimes my clients are having clients having their employees sign non-competes that are unnecessary really non-competes are only necessary in very in my opinion in very rare circumstances because you can have the non solicitations and the non disclosures and you can protect what it is you need to protect in most cases so i would think carefully about those non-compete say i've had clients who have come to me and they've had everybody including their receptionist sign a non-compete it's it's just you know obviously overkill we've defended a case where another another company tried to enforce a non compete against a receptionist okay didn't get very far it was a car industry kids always for you car dealers here okay guys 10 get one one question from one of our car dealer friends here yes you can the question is whether there's going to be adequate consideration our friend back there yep and so there's it's unclear in the law whether continued employment is that a quick consideration for restrictive covenants so we always recommend that there be some kind of remuneration consideration at that time like you know they get it when there's a bonus or they get it wit for some kind of you know extra consideration there is a trend there's no definitive there's no authoritative what we call authoritative opinion or decision on that issue of that weather continued at-will employment is consideration for presenting and signing a non-compete somebody that's the trend is at the Superior Court the trend is in federal courts and superior courts to find that it is but in the exercise of you know lawyers and usually cautious so we would know you know we would always advise if you could find some way to give something extra whether it's a bonus raise promotion whatever it is give something extra and tie it to that obligation then you take away the issue okay um please stay and ask us any individual questions you have enjoy the rest of your breakfast or start your day thank you so much for joining us you