In October 2023, California’s Governor signed Assembly Bill (AB) 1076 which added the new Business & Professions Code §16600.1, making it unlawful to impose non-compete clauses on employees – which contractual restrictions already are void under Business & Professions Code §16600.
Under AB 1076, employers must notify current employees and former employees (employed after January
California’s Governor signed Assembly Bill (AB) 1076 on October 13, 2023, which adds new Business & Professions Code §16600.1, making it unlawful to impose non-compete clauses on employees – which contractual restrictions already are void under Business & Professions Code §16600. Read more.
On September 1, 2023, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 699, which buttresses current state law that voids contracts that restrain an employee from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind. California’s Business and Professions Code section 16600 states, “[E]very contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a
On August 26, 2019, the Delaware Chancery Court invalidated a California employee’s customer and employee non-solicitation covenant on the grounds that it violated California law. In doing so, the Court rejected the plaintiff company’s attempt to override California law by including a Delaware choice of law provision in the underlying agreement.
Background
We initially reported
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
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