On April 24, 2025, the Florida Legislature passed legislation to create two new forms of noncompetes for employers and businesses: a covered garden leave provision and a provision limiting noncompetes to a specific geographic...more
The federal government has filed motions to stay two ongoing appeals of rulings that blocked the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) rule banning noncompete agreements....more
On February 26, 2025, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson directed the agency to form a new “Joint Labor Task Force” that will focus on enforcing federal antitrust laws to protect competition in labor...more
In a significant development for employers that use restrictive covenant agreements, on February 14, 2025, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Acting General Counsel (GC) William B. Cowen rescinded prior NLRB GC memoranda,...more
In 2021, LKQ Corporation (LKQ) filed suit against Robert Rutledge, its former plant manager, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. LKQ alleged that Rutledge’s working for a competitor within nine...more
2/6/2025
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Choice-of-Law ,
Delaware ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforceability ,
Forfeiture ,
Illinois ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Qualified Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) ,
Restricted Stocks ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unjust Enrichment
Less than a week before the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division jointly published guidelines on assessing whether business...more
1/27/2025
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Biden Administration ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Franchises ,
Joint Policy Statements ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Trump Administration
In another post-McLaren Macomb challenge to common employer/employee agreements, on October 7, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) general counsel (GC) issued a memorandum warning employers that the GC views...more
On July 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) final rule prohibiting noncompetition employment...more
On May 7, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a final rule that effectively bans all non-compete agreements between employers and “workers” as “unfair method[s] of competition” and requires employers to refrain...more
5/28/2024
/ Corporate Executives ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Final Rules ,
Former Employee ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Notice Requirements ,
Popular ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Unfair Competition
On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted a final rule that effectively prohibits the use of almost all non-compete clauses....more
On January 5, 2023, nearly eighteen months after President Biden signed an executive order directing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair to “consider working with the rest of the Commission to exercise the FTC’s...more
On August 13, 2021, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 672, an amendment to the Illinois Freedom to Work Act. While the law codifies substantive Illinois common law on restrictive covenants, it...more
The Illinois General Assembly recently approved House of Representatives Amendment 1 to Senate Bill (SB) 672, which would significantly reform noncompete and nonsolicitation law in Illinois. The bill will now go to Governor...more
In 2016, Illinois enacted the Illinois Freedom to Work Act (IFWA). In doing so, it became one of the first states to pass legislation in response to the Obama administration’s Call to Action, which asked states to amend their...more
Two recent rulings in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division and the Central District of Illinois, Peoria Division, have further blurred the “bright line” two-year consideration rule established by the Illinois...more
The Illinois Supreme Court’s recent refusal to review the Illinois Appellate Court’s controversial decision in Fifield v. Premier Dealer Services, Inc., No. 1-12-0327, 2013 IL App (1st) 120327 (Jun. 24, 2013) leaves employers...more
As we previously discussed in our blog post, the “continued employment doctrine,” which is the majority view in Illinois, is that two years of continued employment after an employee enters a restrictive covenant is...more
In this series of blog posts, we have examined the use of injunctive relief in state and federal courts in response to employees who have misappropriated confidential information and trade secrets, who have solicited clients...more
In our last two posts, we identified best practices for ensuring that a company’s house is in order, including the use of narrowly tailored restrictive covenant agreements (Part I) and adopting a company culture and behaviors...more
One of the primary reasons for using a restrictive covenant agreement is to protect a company’s confidential information and trade secrets. By implementing certain behaviors, a company can significantly enhance its chances of...more
Following the Illinois appellate court decisions in Diederich Insurance Agency, LLC v. Smith, 952 N.E.2d 165, 169 (5th Dist. 2011) and Brown & Brown, Inc. v. Mudron, 887 N.E.2d 437, 441 (3d Dist. 2008), it is well settled in...more