On August 20, 2024, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted a nationwide injunction against the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) rule banning non-competes with employees (the “Rule”)....more
8/22/2024
/ Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Bans ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Act ,
Injunctions ,
Lack of Authority ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Statutory Authority ,
Texas ,
Unfair Competition
Earlier this year, on April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) issued a final rule (the “Final Rule”) barring nearly all non-competition provisions for most workers in the United States. The Final Rule is set...more
Judge Ada Brown in the Northern District of Texas has stayed the effective date of the FTC’s Non-Compete Rule and granted plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction against the Rule, effective July 3, 2024. The court found...more
On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) promulgated its final rule prohibiting non-competes for most workers in the United States (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule raises several issues, including...more
5/2/2024
/ Competition ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Franchises ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Nonprofits ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Selling a Business ,
Unfair Competition
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (the “Commission”) voted to issue its final rule (the “Final Rule”) barring non-competes for most workers in the United States, with exceptions for non-competes entered into in...more
As we last reported in March, the Federal Trade Commission’s (the “Commission’s”) final vote on its Proposed Rule to Ban Noncompetes (“Proposed Rule”) was slated to take place as early as April 2024. Today, the Commission...more
While the FTC was relatively quiet in 2023 on the non-compete front, California forged ahead with two amendments to its non-compete statute (Business and Professions Code section 16600) that, depending on how courts interpret...more
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Second Circuit’s decision in Murray v. UBS and resolved a circuit split in favor of employees, holding that although intent is an element of a Sarbanes-Oxley...more
Each year seems to bring significant developments in whistleblower law, and 2023 has been no exception. As whistleblower activity increases, so, too, has the scope of its protections. From state to federal government, from...more
12/19/2023
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Confidentiality Agreements ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Oral Argument ,
Protected Activity ,
Retaliation ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Separation Agreement ,
Whistleblowers
On May 30, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board’s (the “NLRB’s”) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo (the “General Counsel”) issued Memo General Counsel 23-08 (the “Memo”), expansively finding that non‑competes with...more
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ’s”) ongoing efforts against no-poach agreements suffered their latest setback on April 28, 2023, following the Connecticut federal court’s ruling in U.S.A. v. Mahesh Patel, acquitting...more
The FTC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking of its Non-Compete Clause Rule, which would ban non-competes altogether if promulgated, opened 2023 with a bang. Whether it goes into effect, in what form, and whether the Rule will...more
Following a year of unprecedented M&A deal activity, 2022 saw the global M&A market settle back into a more familiar pace. The year finished 38.8% lower than 2021’s record level, but only 9.3% lower than 2015-2019 averages,...more
1/23/2023
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
CFIUS ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Digital Markets Strategy ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Excise Tax ,
Export Controls ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Foreign Investment ,
Mergers ,
Multidistrict Litigation ,
National Security ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Popular ,
Private Equity ,
REIT ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Technology ,
UK
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule broadly seeking to ban non-compete agreements with nearly all U.S. workers, with only limited exceptions. The proposed rule would:
•make it...more
20 second read: While courts generally appear to give greater deference to enforcement of sale of business non-competes, at least one Delaware court confirmed that if a court thinks the restrictions go beyond the scope of the...more
What Happened? Before last week, some courts had applied the standard in California Labor Code section 1102.6 to resolve whistleblower claims under California Labor Code section 1102.5, while other courts had applied the...more
2/7/2022
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
Burden of Proof ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Clear and Convincing Evidence ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Labor Code ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Termination ,
Wage and Hour ,
Whistleblowers
On the heels of the bi-partisan introduction of the Workforce Mobility Act in Congress in February 2021, on May 31, 2021, the Illinois General Assembly passed amendments to the Illinois Freedom to Work Act (the “Amendments”)...more
7/1/2021
/ Amended Legislation ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Governor Pritzker ,
Illinois ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Solicitation Agreements ,
State and Local Government ,
State Attorneys General
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
On March 18, 2020, Governor Cuomo of New York signed into law a statewide quarantine leave bill related to the COVID-19 pandemic (the “New York law”). The New York law went into effect immediately on March 18 and provides...more
Last year, jurisdictions across the nation issued new laws and regulations further complicating compliance issues for employers, particularly for multi-state employers. Some of the most significant developments related to new...more
2/24/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Misclassification ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Paid Leave ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Salary/Wage History ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
“Employees leaving an organization might be replaced physically, however, their skill-sets and knowledge cannot be exactly replaced by the person replacing them… the skill of employees, account for 85% of a company’s...more
It was only a couple of years ago, on March 27, 2015, that a jury rejected Ellen Pao’s gender discrimination claims and rendered a defense verdict in favor of her former employer, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital...more
10/10/2017
/ Bias ,
Entrepreneurs ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Google ,
Investors ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Personal Liability ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Technology Sector ,
UK ,
Unruh Civil Rights Act
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued its final regulations regarding the “advice exception” to reporting requirements of employers and lawyers under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. ...more
On October 6, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB358, which amends Labor Code Section 1197.5, California’s existing gender pay equality law.1 Most of the previous statute remains intact, but the...more
10/9/2015
/ Employee Rights ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Pay ,
Fair Pay Act ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Equity ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Governor Brown ,
New Legislation ,
Popular ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Substantially Similar ,
Wage and Hour
The NLRB’s Decision In Browning-Ferris Industries Of California (2015) One Month Later: Is The Sky Falling For Employers? -
The short answer to the question is, “Not yet.” Browning-Ferris Industries of California, Inc....more
10/2/2015
/ Browning-Ferris Industries of California Inc. ,
Collective Bargaining ,
Discipline ,
Franchises ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Joint Employers ,
McDonalds ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Supervision ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Wage and Hour