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Non-Compete Agreements › Tortious Interference

Non-Compete Agreements are contracts, typically formed in employment or business purchase contexts, where one party agrees to refrain from engaging in a particular line of work or pursuing business within a... more +
Non-Compete Agreements are contracts, typically formed in employment or business purchase contexts, where one party agrees to refrain from engaging in a particular line of work or pursuing business within a certain industry or locale. The purpose of these agreements is to protect employers or business purchasers from competition stemming from former employees or former owners of a business. less -
Rivkin Radler LLP

The Employment Law Reporter: Winter 2024

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Here is what we cover in this issue of The Employment Law Reporter: •A federal district court in New York has dismissed employment discrimination claims brought under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and...more

Lathrop GPM

Eleventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Boycott Conspiracy Claim Against Heavy Equipment Dealers

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The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has recently affirmed a summary judgment order dismissing all claims by an importer of new Chinese construction equipment alleging a conspiracy to boycott and tortious interference with...more

Nilan Johnson Lewis PA

Post-Hire Advice-of-Counsel—Why the Justification Defense Can Be Used in Ongoing Restrictive Covenant Litigation

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Hiring an applicant who has a non-compete or non-solicit agreement with a prior employer creates risk for the both the individual and the new employer. The prior employer can sue both the applicant for violating the contract...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Claim Employer Exaggerated Scope of Noncompete Survives Motion to Dismiss in Illinois Federal Court

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In a recent decision, a federal trial court in Illinois allowed an employee’s tortious interference claim to continue against his former employer alleging it had exaggerated the reach of a noncompete agreement that he had...more

Hendershot Cowart P.C.

I Received a Cease-and-Desist Letter – What Should I Do Next?

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A cease-and-desist letter is a warning to businesses or individuals to stop certain harmful actions. The letter may even threaten legal action if the recipient does not comply. If you receive a cease-and-desist letter,...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Void vs. Voidable: The Distinction That Can Make or Break a Tortious Interference Claim in Light of the Great Resignation

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Over the past two years, employee mobility seems to be at an all-time high. In fact, the labor market is so fluid that pundits and experts often refer to it as the “Great Resignation.” Although employee mobility can be a...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Which Affiliates Are Bound by Restrictive Covenants Hinges on the Language the Parties Chose, Recent Rulings Stress

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In 2021, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued two decisions addressing when a contractual party’s affiliates are bound to restrictive covenants in an agreement. In the first case, Sixth Street Partners Management Company,...more

Allen Matkins

Breaching A Contract May Be Wrong But It Isn't Independently Wrongful

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 In 1995, the California Supreme Court held that a plaintiff pursuing a claim for interference with a prospective contractual or economic relationship had to plead that the defendant's conduct was wrongful.  Della Penna v....more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc.: Opening the Door to Non-Compete Agreements Between Businesses in California

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In a recent decision, Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., the Supreme Court of California opened the door for some restrictive covenants between commercial enterprises, but it left alone California law generally prohibiting...more

Nilan Johnson Lewis PA

In First Impression Decision, Minnesota Federal Court Applies Advice-of-Counsel Defense to Tortious Interference Claim

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In a first-of-its-kind decision, NJL non-compete litigator Katie Connolly convinced a Minnesota federal court to apply a novel advice-of-counsel defense to an employer’s hiring of an individual with a non-compete agreement....more

McAfee & Taft

When is hiring a competitor’s employee ‘racketeering’?

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When hiring new employees – especially those who are currently employed or who recently have been employed by a competing company or organization – it’s always a best practice to ask them if they are subject to an employment...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

California Supreme Court Clarifies Pleading Requirements for Claims of Tortious Interference with At-Will Contracts and Adopts...

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Called upon by the Ninth Circuit in Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc. to answer two key questions concerning the validity of a settlement provision requiring a party’s termination of a collaboration agreement with a...more

Payne & Fears

Economic Tort of Tortious Interference With At-Will Contractual Relations Requires Allegation of Independent Wrongful Act

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In Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., S256927, 2020 WL 4432623 (Cal. Aug. 3, 2020) (“Ixchel Pharma”), the Supreme Court of California clarified two points: (1) that to state a claim for interference with an at-will contract...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

California Supreme Court Holds Law Restricting Employment Non-Competes Also Applies to Businesses Contracts Under Antitrust Real...

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In Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., the court addresses “an important question of California law, potentially affecting all contracts in California that in some way restrain a contracting party from engaging in a...more

Epstein Becker & Green

California Supreme Court Applies Rule of Reason Test for “Business Only” Restrictive Covenants

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In Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., 20 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7729, __ P.3d __(August 3, 2020), the California Supreme Court made it easier for businesses to enforce restrictive covenants against other businesses. This...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

California Supreme Court Clarifies Standards For B2B Non-Competition Agreements And Disputes In California

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This week, on August 3, 2020, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., which resolved two questions regarding the standards to be applied for non-competition agreements and...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

The California Supreme Court Clarifies Section 16600 as Applied to Business Contracts and Holds That an Independently Wrongful Act...

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The most powerful tool capable of invalidating competitive restraints under California law is Business and Professions Code section 16600. That statute states that “[e]very contract by which anyone is restrained from...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Youth Soccer Company Cries Foul at Competitor and Former Employees

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On March 3, 2020, Massachusetts Premier Soccer LLC, doing business as Global Premier Soccer (“GPS”), filed a complaint in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging that two of its former...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Allegedly “(Leon) Black”-listed Former Apollo Employee Fails to State A Business Tort Claim

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The line between aggressive business competition and unlawful conduct can sometimes be difficult to determine. Many different theories of tort liability have developed over the years to address the variations of unlawful...more

Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Zillow Sues Rival Compass Alleging IP Theft And Breach Of Contract Over Its Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, And Cloud...

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Switching from defense to offense, Zillow Group, Inc., best known for its residential real estate marketplace technology, recently filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington alleging a...more

Genova Burns LLC

Appeals Court Tells Former Employees: Two Wrongs Don’t Make Them Right

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The Third Circuit skirted the issue as to the means by which the employer, Scherer Design Group (“SDG”) found out about the theft. In the end, the fact that an employer may have violated the common law by accessing private...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

California Nixes Employee Non-Solicitation Restrictions

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Employers with California operations probably know that traditional noncompetition covenants are unenforceable in that state. Additional state court decisions concluded that customer non-solicitation prohibitions are also...more

Lewitt Hackman

FRANCHISEE 101: Cannabiz Accounting

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Tax service franchisor, H&R Block, was recently vindicated in having terminated a franchisee for violating an in-term non-compete covenant. A United States District Court granted the franchisor summary judgment in Devore v....more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Can Attorneys Be Liable For Directing Clients To Breach Non-Competes? One Federal Court Says Maybe

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In a classic example of bad facts creating bad law, a federal judge in Kentucky recently denied a motion to dismiss claims brought against attorneys who allegedly counseled employees to breach a non-compete agreement and...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Non-Compete: Who is the Bad Actor?

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Against the backdrop of a continuing trend of low rates of unemployment throughout the United States, there has been a recent surge of people searching for new and better jobs. As a result, there has also been increased...more

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