-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Proving once again that corporate greed knows no limits, real estate firm Cushman Wakefield recently sued a former janitor, Sonia Mercado, for violating a non-compete agreement. The Washington Post broke the story. Immediately thereafter, following public outcry and a rash of negative publicity, Cushman caved and agreed to drop the lawsuit. Although that is a … Continue reading
On April 3, 2018, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division announced the first no-poaching antitrust settlement of the Trump Administration. Previously, senior DOJ officials had made public comments indicating that the DOJ intends to aggressively police no-poaching agreements, including via criminal prosecutions. According to the DOJ, the antitrust conspiracy involved two of the world’s largest … Continue reading
IBM & Its Diversity Trade Secrets: IBM had sued its former Chief Diversity Officer for moving to Microsoft and breaching a non-compete agreement. At issue: IBM claimed that Lindsay Rae McIntyre was privy to “trade secrets” regarding IBM’s efforts to promote and retain diverse talent. I call bullshit. Somewhat shockingly, the SDNY issued a temporary … Continue reading
FOR-EV-ER. Remember The Sandlot? That’s what we’re talking about here. FOR-EV-ER. A recent decision out of Michigan and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reminds us that some non-competes can last forever and that jury instructions are incredibly important. Let’s take a look: In 1947, Fred Barton developed a radiator stop leak … Continue reading
Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran a story about non-compete agreements making it difficult for younger journalists to get new jobs and move up in the news world. The article focused substantially on a young journalist named Stephanie Russell-Kraft who moved from Law360 to Thomson Reuters. Shortly after beginning work at Thomson Reuters, her … Continue reading
A very important decision out of the Western District of Michigan touches upon several important aspects of non-compete litigation and particularly non-compete defense. Not surprisingly, the case pits Stryker against a former sales rep. Stryker, as many folks know, is notorious for aggressively enforcing its non-compete agreements. Let’s take a look: Christopher Ridgeway was hired … Continue reading
A recent case out of the Louisiana Court of Appeal reminds us that some states will enforce physician non-compete agreements, even in the absence of a clear protectable interest and even where such enforcement threatens harm to the public. But the case does more than that: It forces us to take a hard look at … Continue reading
A recurrent theme in non-compete litigation is the overriding importance of choice-of-law. The latest example comes to us from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas and pits a Texas choice-of-law provision against Oklahoma public policy. Let’s take a look: Sometime in early 2013, Tulsa, Oklahoma based F&M Bank began talks … Continue reading
Dimitrios Tsirkos first became a Mister Softee franchisee in the mid 1980’s. To be clear, we are talking about the ice cream truck business. Over the years, Tsirkos entered several franchise agreements with Mister Softee and ultimately controlled sixteen Mister Softee franchises with a territory spanning parts of Bronx, New York and Queens Counties. At … Continue reading
A recent non-compete case out of Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals deals with the issue of restrictive covenants and independent clauses. Let’s take a look: In the Trial Court Defendants Dale Denton and David West were employees of Richland Towers, Inc. They signed employment agreements with Richland that contained, among other restrictive covenants, non-compete … Continue reading
the non-compete blog 