Do employees in New Jersey owe a duty of loyalty to employers, even without a written employment agreement? Eliminating any possible doubt, the New Jersey Appellate Division answered, emphatically, yes.
In Technology Dynamics, Inc. d/b/a Nova Battery Systems v. Emerging Power, Inc. et al., Docket No. A-0952-17T3 (N.J. Sup. Ct. – App. Div. Feb.
Last year, Democrats in the United States Senate and House of Representatives introduced bills — S.2782 and H.R.5631 — banning non-compete agreements in the vast majority of workplaces across the country. Although those bills failed to gain traction, the authors of this Blog anticipated a renewed effort at federal non-compete reform in 2019, with Democrats
When implementing restrictive covenant agreements in their workforces, companies often grapple with how best to handle the wide variation in the law from one state to the other. One solution is to include a choice of law provision that calls for all agreements to be construed under the laws of a single state. Still, there
In the midst of a federal effort to ramp up antitrust prosecutions of companies agreeing not to recruit or hire each other’s employees (see previous articles dated November 9, 2016, January 25, 2018, April 25, 2018 and July 17, 2018), special scrutiny – and criticism – has been directed toward the use
Answering a question left from a previous appeal in the same case, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has concluded that a settlement agreement provision between a physician and his former employer, the California Emergency Physicians Medical Group (“CEP”), constituted a “restraint of a substantial character” on the
Just before midnight on July 31, 2018, the last day of its legislative session, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a significant bill regulating the use of non-compete agreements in the Commonwealth. Today, August 10, 2018, Governor Charlie Baker signed that bill into law.
In an article dated August 1, 2018, we examined the key aspects
Just before midnight on July 31, 2018, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a bill regulating the use of non-compete agreements in the Commonwealth. This development is a long time coming, as the Legislature had been attempting for nearly a decade to create a non-compete law.
In an article posted on our website on August 1, 2018,
As we have reported in previous articles, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has repeatedly reaffirmed its intent to criminally prosecute companies that restrict labor market competition through the use of unlawful no-poach and wage-fixing agreements. On May 17, 2018, a high-ranking Division official offered further guidance by announcing that the Division is taking a
On April 3, 2018, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division settled an antitrust action against the world’s two largest rail equipment suppliers, accusing them of maintaining “naked” no-poaching agreements in violation of the Sherman Act (see Complaint and Consent Decree). Although the civil enforcement action falls short of the agency’s recently-stated inclination to criminally
On April 20, 2018, Jackson Lewis published an article entitled, “Brazilian Labor Courts Continue to Emphasize Importance of Non-Compete Clause Limitations,” by John Sander and Maya Atrakchi in the New York City office. John currently serves as Chairman of L&E Global, a global alliance of premier employer’s counsel firms. Our colleague Gabriela Lima Arantes at