Federal Non-Compete Legislation Update

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The National Labor Relations Board moved from theory to practice in this administration’s battle against restrictive covenants. Recently, the Regional Director of Region 9 of the National Labor Relations Board filed a consolidated complaint alleging that certain restrictive covenants contained in offer letters and policies in an employee handbook violated the National Labor Relations Act. This complaint is a logical…

Continue Reading We’ve Got a Test Case: The NLRB Files its First Complaint Challenging the Validity of Restrictive Covenants
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The FTC is not alone in taking aim at non-competes. Yesterday, the NLRB’s General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo to all regional directors, officers-in-charge, and resident officers at the NLRB stating that non-competes in employment agreements and severance agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act except in rare circumstances. Specifically, Ms. Abruzzo claims that such covenants interfere with workers’…

Continue Reading The NLRB Joins the Fray: Another Attack on Non-Competes
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In this episode, Scott Mallery, Dan Hart, and Robert Milligan discuss the FTC’s authority to issue such a broad proposed regulation, and what constitutional challenges to that authority will likely look like. In addition, we discuss legislation that has been introduced in Congress that would not only do essentially the same thing the FTC’s proposed rule would do…

Continue Reading Policy Matters Podcast: FTC’s Crackdown on Non-Competes Through Agency Rulemaking Part 2
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US Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and US Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) on February 1st reintroduced the Workforce Mobility Act. The legislation would ban the use of non-compete agreements with some limited exceptions. US Representative Scott Peters (D-Calif.-52) and US Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.-08) introduced the legislation in the US House of Representatives. US Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and US Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) co-sponsored the legislation. The bill was previously introduced in the House of Representatives in 2021.…

Continue Reading Legislation Reintroduced in Congress to Ban Non-Compete Agreements and Seeking to Go Even Further than FTC’s Proposed Ban

Trade Secrets Year in Review Webinar

Tuesday, January 24, 2023
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Central
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Mountain
10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific

REGISTER HERE

In the second installment of the 2023 Trade Secrets Webinar Series, Seyfarth attorneys will review the noteworthy legislation, cases, and legal developments from across the nation over the last year…

Continue Reading Upcoming Webinar! 2022 Trade Secrets & Non-Competes Year in Review
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As our colleagues have previously reported in this blog, on January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) concerning its unprecedented effort to ban all non-compete clauses with workers and to preempt state law on the issue. The NPRM followed just one day after the FTC announced that it had reached a consent settlement with three companies for alleged unfair trade practices by imposing overly burdensome non-compete agreements.

Not surprisingly, the NPRM has sparked a surge of commentary in the legal and business communities and immediately courted controversy. The sole Republican member of the FTC, Commissioner Christine S. Wilson, issued a vigorous dissent, arguing:…

Continue Reading Answering the $296 Billion Question: FTC’s Proposed Rulemaking on Worker Non-Competes Likely to be Found Unconstitutional

Thursday, January 12, 2023
3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern 
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Central
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Mountain
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Pacific

REGISTER HERE

In the first installment of the 2023 Trade Secrets & Non-Competes Webinar Series, our team will focus on the new Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) proposed rule banning the use of…

Continue Reading Upcoming Webinar! FTC Proposes Rule Banning Use of Non-Competes. Now What?
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Earlier today, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) published a proposed rule which would ban all non-compete agreements between employers and “workers” (broadly defined to include employees, independent contractors, interns, and others). If adopted, the proposed rule will bar both prospective and existing non-compete agreements. The FTC included an overview fact sheet describing the proposed rule.

The FTC is seeking public comment on the proposed rule, which is based on a preliminary finding that non-competes constitute an unfair method of competition and therefore violate Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. This proposed rule aligns with the FTC’s recent statement to attempt to reinvigorate Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans unfair methods of competition.…

Continue Reading FTC Proposes Rule Banning Use of Non-Competes with Employees and Workers and Limiting Employer Protections Against Unfair Competition

trade secrets 2022 webinar series recap and takeaways

Throughout 2022, our dedicated Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Compete practice group hosted a series of CLE webinars that addressed significant trade secret and restrictive covenant issues facing companies today. This year’s series included:

  1. 2021 Trade Secrets & Non-Competes Year in Review
  2. Protecting Trade Secrets and Enforcing Restrictive Covenants Internationally
  3. Employee Mobility & Its Effects on Trade Secrets and Non-Competes
  4. Anatomy of a Restrictive Covenant
  5. How and Why Texas Is Different When It Comes to Trade Secrets and Non-Competes
  6. How Multijurisdictional Businesses Should Approach Non-Competes
  7. Protecting Confidential Information and Client Relationships in the Financial Services Industry
  8. Overview of Non-Compete Legislation and Enforcement Issues from 2022

As a conclusion to our 2022 webinar series, we compiled a list of key takeaway points for each program. For those who missed any of the programs in this year’s series, recordings of all of our past webinars are available on the blog, or you may click on the link for each webinar below to view the recording.…

Continue Reading 2022 Trade Secrets Webinar Series: Takeaways & Recordings

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In the final 2022 webinar, Seyfarth attorneys Kate Perrelli, Dan Hart, and Dallin Wilson discussed new and pending legislation and enforcement issues for non-competes.

As a conclusion to this webinar, we compiled a summary of takeaways:

  • State law on restrictive covenant agreements continues to evolve, with more states imposing compensation thresholds, notice requirements, penalties, and other obligations on employers that
… Continue Reading Webinar Recap! Overview of Non-Compete Legislation and Enforcement Issues from 2022