Noncompete & Trade Secrets

Noncompetes are becoming more prevalent. In the beginning, noncompetes were reserved for high-level executives, big producing salespeople, and folks with technical know-how. Now, noncompetes are creeping into nearly every imaginable job category, including hourly workers and part-timers. IMcP’s noncompete lawyers often draft, negotiate, advise, and litigate restrictive covenants (noncompetes, nonsolicits, and nondisclosures).

Companies may have legitimate bases to enforce reasonable covenants. There have been other examples and arguments where noncompetes were used to “chill” an employee’s thoughts of leaving for a competitor for better pay and job prospects, never knowing whether or not the employer would actually go through the time and expense (e.g. attorneys’ fees and costs) of enforcing the restriction. Noncompetes are also valued by some employers related to competitive actions by other companies seeking to poach employees who are subject to noncompetes.

So, clients almost always want to know if the noncompete will be enforced by the existing or old employer, whether it would be enforceable, and what happens if a TRO or injunction is granted. These are fact-specific and circumstance-intensive questions requiring a noncompete attorney to evaluate how judges in the likely forum view noncompetes (especially as to a potential TRO or injunction), the reputation of the specific company or industry in aggressively enforcing noncompetes, and analyzing the specific language of the noncompete against the relevant case law.

Naturally, there are other recurring questions IMcP’s noncompete lawyers are asked. Some of those questions are: