As January quickly passed by and new projects increase by the day, there is still a golden opportunity to capitalize on some low-hanging fruit to immediately improve your company’s practices and add immediate value to your company. The opportunity lies in improving your company’s restrictive covenant and confidentiality agreements and confidentiality policies. Below are five tips that you can employ
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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules That Continued Employment Is Not Sufficient Consideration for Non-Competes Entered Into After the Employment Relationship Has Begun
In a landmark ruling of first impression, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently held that an employer’s non-competition covenant, which included the employee’s pledge not to challenge the covenant for inadequate consideration, is unenforceable unless it is accompanied by a change in job status or some other significant benefit. Socko v. Mid-Atlantic Systems of CPA, Inc., Case No. 3-40-2015 (Nov.
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Is An Offer Of At-Will Employment Adequate Consideration For A Non-Compete? Recent Court Rulings Split Three Ways
Three very recent decisions reflect the irreconcilable division of judicial authority regarding the adequacy of at-will employment as the sole consideration for an otherwise valid non-compete. Compare (a) Standard Register Co. v. Keala, No. 14-00291 (D. Haw., June 8, 2015) (adequate under Hawaii law) (“majority rule”), with (b) Hunn v. Dan Wilson Homes, Inc., Nos. 13-11297
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No Stick Without a Carrot: UK Court Refuses to Enforce Post-Employment Restrictive Covenants
The recent decision of the High Court in Re-use Collections Limited v. Sendall & May Glass Recycling Ltd. serves as a useful reminder for employers: restrictive covenants introduced during the employment relationship (rather than at the point of hiring) require specific consideration if they are to be enforceable. Under UK law, changes to employment terms require consideration if they
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Non-Compete And Confidentiality Clauses In A Beverage Maker’s Contracts With A Bottler And A Consultant Held To Be Unenforceable
Courts will decline to enforce contractual restrictive covenants in agreements that unreasonably restrain trade or lack adequate consideration.
Summary of the Case
Innovation Ventures (IV), developer of an energy drink, entered into contracts with a bottler and with a production consultant. Both contracts contained non-compete and confidentiality clauses. Shortly after the bottler’s and consultant’s business relationships with IV ended, IV
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Rebecca Woods on Recent Kentucky Supreme Court Decision Holding that Non-Compete Failed for Lack of Consideration
In a recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Kentucky, Creech v. Brown (June 19, 2014), the court affirmed that in Kentucky, noncompetition agreements must be supported by adequate consideration in order to be enforceable. The circumstance addressed by the court involved an employee who was presented with a noncompetition and confidentiality agreement after working for the employer for
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Eleventh Circuit Affirms Alabama Federal Court Ruling that Non-Compete Signed Prior to Employment is Void
A few months ago, we reported on a federal court decision in the Southern District of Alabama declining to enforce a non-compete and non-solicitation agreement against a former employee who executed the agreement before he began his employment. Last week, a panel of the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the District Court’s decision in an unpublished opinion.
As we reported following
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Ohio Court Issues Significant Non-Compete Decision: Damages for a Breach are the Payor’s Lost Profits, Not the Amount of Consideration
The usual measure of monetary damages for violation of a covenant not to compete, even where the violator was paid a discreet sum for the covenant, is the amount that puts the injured party in the same position it would have been in if the contract had been performed. Briggs v. GLA Water Management, 2014 Ohio 1551 (Ohio App.,
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Illinois Federal Court Finds Only 15 Months’ Employment Sufficient Consideration For Non-Compete Agreement
In a ruling announced a few days ago, Chief Judge Ruben Castillo of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois adjudicated the validity of a non-compete clause in an employment agreement where the employee had worked for only 15 months and then resigned and began competing. Notwithstanding the latest word from the Illinois Appellate Court — “Illinois
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Illinois Supreme Court Won’t Take Up Non-Compete Case, Adequate Consideration Questions Remain
Once a stalwart of adequate consideration in exchange for a restrictive covenant, new employment, remains in flux after the Fifield v. Premier case was not taken up by the Illinois Supreme Court recently.
Fifield, decided in the summer of 2013 by the First District Appellate Court, held that in order for employment to be adequate consideration for a non-compete,
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