The Labor Law Insider: Feds Retreat and States Advance: A Look at Restrictive Covenants under the Second Trump Administration and Trends at the State Level, Part II
Enforceability of Physician Non-Compete Agreements
The judgment in Houssein & Others v. London Credit Ltd provides a useful summary of the English penalty rule and guidance on its application in practice....more
On February 3, 2026, the California Supreme Court issued its decision in Fuentes v. Empire Nissan, Inc. In this decision, which dealt with an illegible arbitration provision, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court and...more
INTRODUCTION: On February 3, 2026, the Delaware Supreme Court issued its decision in North American Fire Ultimate Holdings LP v. Doorly, holding that equity units subject to forfeiture are valid consideration for a...more
Businesses can face penalties even for well-intentioned contract terms. As consumer review protections expand nationwide, even well-intentioned and passive contractual language can unknowingly land businesses on the wrong...more
New York City and New York State have new protections for employees that are either in effect now, or will take effect soon. An expansion of the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act will take effect February 22. And a...more
Duke University settled its lawsuit against star quarterback Darian Mensah on January 27, slightly over a week after filing it. The swift settlement concluded a case that could have resolved fundamental legal questions facing...more
Former employees of The Boston Beer Company, Inc.—a company that sells brand names like Samuel Adams and Twisted Tea—have filed a putative class action lawsuit to challenge the sufficiency of monetary payouts for departing...more
On January 27, 2026, the FTC held a half-day workshop entitled “Moving Forward: Protecting Workers from Anticompetitive Noncompete Agreements.” At the outset, Chairman Andrew Ferguson explained that he disagreed with the 2024...more
Contracting parties operating in Texas are no doubt mindful of the express negligence rule: If the contracting parties intend to indemnify a party for the consequences of its own negligence, they must specifically and...more
Signed into law on December 19, 2025, New York’s Trapped at Work Act (the “Act”) prohibits employers from having workers execute employment promissory notes that require workers to “repay” employers if they leave their job...more
The Boston Beer Company faces a class action suit challenging the sufficiency of payouts to departing employees that signed noncompetition agreements....more
In Spain, consumer law recognises that the contractual relationship between businesses and consumers is inherently unbalanced. To address this, Spanish legislation establishes a set of mandatory, non-waivable consumer rights...more
Liquidated damages clauses are a common feature in contracts across industries, including construction, where they serve as a mechanism to predefine compensation for contractual breaches, including delayed completion....more
On December 19, 2025, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed S. 4070, the “Trapped at Work Act,” creating Article 37 of the New York Labor Law (Labor Law §§ 1050–1055)....more
Recent legislative developments in multiple states have targeted “stay-or-pay” clauses—contract terms that obligate employees to repay certain bonuses and educational or training expenses if the employee does not stay for a...more
California’s Assembly Bill (“AB”) 692 took effect on January 1, 2026, significantly limiting the use of commonplace “stay-or-pay” clauses in offer letters and agreements, which require employees or prospective employees to...more
New York, California, and other states have recently enacted legislation that curtails or abolishes so-called “stay-or-pay” provisions in employment agreements. “Stay-or-pay” agreements—sometimes referred to as training...more
In Peebles v. JRK Property Holdings, Inc., the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) interpreted the Massachusetts security deposit statute, G.L. c. 186, §15B. Its ruling arose from two questions certified to the SJC by the United...more
On January 1, 2026, California Bill 692 went in to effect, adding Business and Professions Code section 16608 and Labor Code section 926, which prohibits employers from requiring repayment of training expenses, relocation...more
If your business has an online presence, chances are you have an online service agreement or terms of use that include an arbitration agreement. But simply having such an agreement in place doesn’t necessarily mean it will be...more
In Wise v. Tesla Motors, Inc. (Wise), the California Court of Appeal sent a clear signal that courts may not use collateral defects in related employment agreements to invalidate an otherwise enforceable arbitration...more
California and New York recently enacted legislation aimed at prohibiting certain contract terms that impose financial obligations on workers if their work relationship terminates....more
As we closed out 2025, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the New York “Trapped at Work Act,” which amends the New York Labor Law by prohibiting employers from requiring “employment promissory notes” and similar...more
Prenuptial agreements have long evolved beyond simple asset division roadmaps. Modern prenups address conduct during marriage, incorporating so-called “penalty” or “incentive” provisions that attach financial consequences to...more
In conjunction with our federal and New York State labor and employment 2025 Review and 2026 Outlook, we focus here on one of the key developments under New York law. At the end of 2025, New York enacted a Stay-or-Pay...more