The District of Columbia appears poised to join the growing number of nearby states regulating and limiting restrictive covenant agreements in the employment context.

Unanimously passed by the D.C. City Council on December 15, 2020 and signed by Mayor Muriel Bowser on January 11, 2021, the “The Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of

In numerous states throughout the country, legislatures are moving to limit the use and enforcement of non-compete and other restrictive covenant agreements. Two such states, Maryland and Virginia, are seeking to curtail such agreements with regard to low-wage employees.

Virginia Senate Bill 1387

On January 17, 2019, the Virginia Senate introduced SB 1387, which

On May 8, 2019, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed into law HB 1450, described as “AN ACT Relating to restraints, including noncompetition covenants, on persons engaging in lawful professions, trades, or businesses[.]”  While the Act does not take effect until January 1, 2020, its restrictions apply retroactively to existing agreements signed before that date.

After enacting its non-compete law on April 7, 2016, Utah has twice amended the law to address additional restrictions on non-competes in the broadcasting industry. Governor Gary Herbert signed the second of those amended bills on March 22, 2019.

The Original Non-Compete Law

Utah’s original non-compete law, which we covered in an article dated April

Earlier this month, a group of six United States Senators made a joint request for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate the impact of non-compete agreements on workers and the U.S. economy as a whole. This action suggests that the federal non-compete reform effort is not going away.

Recent Legislative Efforts

On February 18,

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

It is axiomatic that a contract requires consideration to be binding. Ordinarily, courts only inquire into the existence, but not the “adequacy,” of consideration.  Illinois courts, however, also scrutinize the adequacy of consideration when it comes to determining whether restrictive covenant agreements qualify as an enforceable contract.  Absent adequate consideration for the restrictive covenant, there

The Minnesota federal district court recently refused to enforce a non-compete agreement, in part, because the employer failed to establish that the agreement was supported by valuable consideration.  The decision, issued on October 6, 2017 in Mid-America Business Systems, v. Sanderson et. al., Case No. 17-3876, serves as an important reminder that,

In Florida, non-competition and other restrictive covenant agreements are enforceable to the extent they are tailored to protect a legitimate business interest. On September 14, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court held that a company’s relationships with business referral sources may constitute a protectable business interest – White v. Mederi Caretenders Visiting Services of Southeast Fla.

In a recent decision examining Kansas non-compete law, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas partially granted a company’s motion to enjoin its former employee’s violations of the non-compete and customer non-solicitation provisions of his employment agreement. The decision, in the matter of Servi Tech, Inc. v. Olson, highlights a number