With the FTC Ban on non-competes essentially dead in the Courts of Appeal, various states and agencies have taken up the mantle to further limit or expand the use of restrictive covenants for certain populations in 2025....more
5/7/2025
/ Amended Regulation ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Independent Contractors ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Physicians ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State Labor Laws
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
As Republicans regain control of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) under the Trump-Vance Administration, employers that looked to maintain and enforce their non-compete agreements with employees may have found solace in...more
3/10/2025
/ Competition ,
Employees ,
Employment Contract ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Labor Reform ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Popular ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Trump Administration ,
Unfair Competition
Last year’s Commercial Litigation Outlook was dominated by the promise and peril that AI poses to myriad industries. No doubt, the evolution of AI in the last year has been significant, and it is still a material...more
2/28/2025
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Class Action ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Competition ,
Data Privacy ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Innovation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Legal Technology ,
Machine Learning ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Risk Management ,
Securities Regulation ,
Technology Sector
On February 14, 2025, NLRB Acting General Counsel William B. Cowan rescinded a number of active General Counsel Memoranda citing an increasing “backlog of cases [grown] to the point where it is no longer sustainable.”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
In 2024, Seyfarth’s Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud & Non-Compete practice group presented a series of dynamic and insightful CLE webinars, addressing pivotal challenges confronting businesses head-on. ...more
1/3/2025
/ Competition ,
Confidential Information ,
Contract Terms ,
Employee Mobility ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trade Secrets
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
Just over a month ago, employers throughout the United States breathed a sigh of relief after Judge Ada Brown in the Northern District of Texas issued a summary judgment ruling in the Ryan v. FTC litigation setting aside the...more
9/25/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Confidential Information ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Motion To Stay ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Summary Judgment
Once again surprising the country by acting ten days before her own self-appointed deadline, a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling on August 20 in the Ryan v....more
8/21/2024
/ Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Competition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
This just in: Judge Ada Brown ruled yesterday on the parties’ dueling summary judgment motions – 10 days before her self-imposed deadline to do so – in Ryan LLC v. FTC. Judge Brown granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary...more
8/21/2024
/ Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Restrictive Covenants
As we recently reported, in its Final Rule banning most worker non-competes, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) previously warned of its intent to vigorously enforce its non-compete ban wherever possible, which may include...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
An administrative law judge (“ALJ”) of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) in J.O. Mory, Inc. recently required an employer to rescind certain restrictive covenants in its employment agreements. The decision is yet...more
7/19/2024
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Employee Handbooks ,
Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 7
In a rapid-fire response, the Ryan Court in the Northern District of Texas this morning denied Plaintiff and Plaintiff-Intervenors’ Expedited Motion for Limited Reconsideration of the Scope of Preliminary Relief, and...more
Having achieved a milestone in obtaining a limited preliminary injunction halting the application of the FTC ban on non-competes effective September 4, 2024 as to the named plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors in its Texas...more
The Court ruled on Wednesday, July 3, what most of the legal community already believed: that the FTC lacked the substantive rulemaking authority to issue a nationwide ban on non-competes between employers and workers....more
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
Are nonprofit health care entities exempt from the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Final Rule banning non-competes in worker agreements? The answer is not cut and dry. While the FTC’s authority generally stops at the doors...more
On April 23, 2024, the FTC announced its Final Non-Compete Clause Rule (“Final Rule”), which bans post-employment non-compete clauses between employers and their workers. The Final Rule becomes effective 120 days after being...more
6/12/2024
/ Chevron Deference ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
FTC Act ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Popular ,
Proposed Rules ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Section 5 ,
Unfair Competition
While the two federal actions in Texas challenging the FTC’s non-compete ban have garnered much of the attention to date, a challenge of the FTC’s rule brought by a small tree trimming business in Pennsylvania is now in the...more
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
The district court in the Northern District of Texas recently set the briefing schedule on Plaintiff Ryan’s Motion to Stay the FTC Non-Compete Ban and Preliminary Injunction...more
On April 26, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced it had finalized changes to modernize the Health Breach Notification Rule (the “HBNR”) by clarifying its applicability to health and wellness apps and other...more
5/7/2024
/ Breach Notification Rule ,
Data Breach ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Digital Health ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Healthcare ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
PHI ,
Popular
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