On March 7, 2025, lawyers for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed motions requesting a 120-day stay of the agency’s appeal of district court decisions in the Fifth Circuit and Eleventh Circuit, which had blocked the...more
On February 14, 2025, NLRB Acting General Counsel William B. Cowan rescinded a number of active General Counsel Memoranda citing an increasing “backlog of cases [grown] to the point where it is no longer sustainable.” Among...more
2/27/2025
/ Deregulation ,
Employees ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Labor Reform ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions
On October 4, 2024, Plaintiff ATS Tree Services, LLC (“ATS”) voluntarily dismissed its claims against the FTC challenging the agency’s Non-Compete Rule. See ATS Tree Services, LLC v. Fed. Trade Comm’n, et al., No....more
Wednesday, a third court weighed in on the FTC’s proposed ban on non-competes, set to go into effect on September 4, 2024. Judge Corrigan of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted the...more
Yesterday, the Court in the ATS Trees v. FTC case denied Plaintiff ATS Trees’ Motion for Stay and Enjoin the FTC recent Ban on Non-Compete agreements (“Final Rule”), because, the Court held, ATS Trees failed to establish...more
7/24/2024
/ Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Labor Regulations ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
State Labor Laws
The FTC’s recently issued Final Rule banning non-competes for most workers prohibits an employer from (1) threatening to enforce a non-compete against a worker, (2) advising the worker that, due to a non-compete, they should...more
6/21/2024
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Good Faith ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Safe Harbors ,
Unfair Competition
The FTC’s Final Rule banning non-competes in worker agreements contains a noteworthy exception that its provisions “do not apply where a cause of action related to a non-compete clause accrued prior to the effective date.” ...more
5/20/2024
/ Cause of Action Accrual ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Due Process ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules
On May 3, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas entered an Order staying the proceedings in Chamber of Commerce v. FTC by granting the FTC’s motion to apply the first-to-file doctrine, in...more
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted in a 3 to 2 decision along party lines to adopt its Final Non-Compete Clause Rule (“Noncompete Rule”) banning post-employment non-compete clauses between employers...more
5/1/2024
/ Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Popular ,
Restrictive Covenants
We previously wrote about the procuring-cause doctrine here. As a refresher, the procuring-cause doctrine provides that a salesperson or other agent who contracts for a commission becomes entitled to payment of the commission...more
On March 21, 2024, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) approved a Federal Register notice seeking public comment on its proposal to revise its current Statement of Policy on Bank Merger Transactions. Among the...more
4/11/2024
/ Antitrust Provisions ,
Bank Merger Act ,
Banks ,
Comment Period ,
FDIC ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Merger Agreements ,
Merger Controls ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Proposed Rules
In Direct Biologics L.L.C. v. McQueen, et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit vacated a lower court’s dismissal of a trade secret and restrictive covenants suit, but nonetheless stressed the need for movants...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Baylor Miraca Genetics Laboratories, LLC (“BMGL”) is in the genetic test business. BMGL sells its tests to its “channel partners,” who in return test specimens ordered by physicians. Brandon Perthuis became...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently set its sights squarely on non-compete agreements in merger transactions, making them ripe for further scrutiny. In a Consent Order issued June 14, 2022, the FTC ordered GPM...more