Noncompetes are Now Illegal

[BmillsSkier]

Please contact a lawyer before spewing this shit. Wow, bitcoin is going to the moon too.

Not now litigator, attorneys are talking.


But since you ding dongs can't be bothered to actually read the rule, here's the explicit exception in connection with a sale of a business (to belabor the point that business owners selling their business aren't employees):

§ 910.3 Exceptions.

(a) Bona fide sales of business. The requirements of this part 910 shall not apply to a non-compete clause that is entered into by a person pursuant to a bona fide sale of a business entity, of the person’s ownership interest in a business entity, or of all or substantially all of a business entity’s operating assets.


Now, who should I send the invoice to?

[MakersTeleMark]

Much ado about nothingburger. Please pic up your airdropped token at the door.

[BmillsSkier]

Much ado about nothingburger. Please pic up your airdropped token at the door.

Huh? You must have me confused with some bitcoin bro or tesla fanboy. Or next time, just admit you came to the conversation with no frame of reference; it's what we do here.

[MakersTeleMark]

Huh? You must have me confused with some bitcoin bro or tesla fanboy. Or next time, just admit you came to the conversation with no frame of reference; it's what we do here.

I have an amazing frame of reference. Just ask the last maggot who asked me to review their non-compete pro boner with a law license in the jurisdiction and 20 years of experience. With their permission I can send it to your people for review, but you didn't step up.

[BmillsSkier]

I have an amazing frame of reference. Just ask the last maggot who asked me to review their non-compete pro boner with a law license in the jurisdiction.

That may be true, but you clearly don't practice M&A or understand the use of non-competes in connection with the sale of a business, or even the (in)applicability of this rule in connection with a sale, which if you go back all of 4 posts, you'd see that was the topic being discussed by Schindler and I.

So, much like Donny, you lacked a frame of reference and instead made a bitcoin non sequitur. It's fine, none of us here have both feet on the merry-go-round.

[MakersTeleMark]

That may be true, but you clearly don't practice M&A or understand the use of non-competes in connection with the sale of a business, or even the (in)applicability of this rule in connection with a sale, which if you go back all of 4 posts, you'd see that was the topic being discussed by Schindler and I.

So, much like Donny, you lacked a frame of reference and instead made a bitcoin non sequitur. It's fine, none of us here have both feet on the merry-go-round.

You just proved the thread is shit. Thank you. /thread

[jackstraw]

We never used non-compete, but some of our competition did. Never thought is was a good practice for our world. Why do we want an employee who doesn't want to be here was our thought process. And it didn't really hold up if you were to fight it anyway.

When the company sold I had to sign a two year regional specific non-compete, which would have held...I'm assuming.

Personally I like this law or whatever they're calling it for the masses. Key executive and sales positions is the grey area that should have some teeth.

[MakersTeleMark]

Nothing burger. Already the law in many states. /moveon.org

[jackstraw]

Nothing burger? Are you a 10 yr old?

Many States, sure. But the others it matters. We have 50 at last count. Where's PR fall into that? ...Different subject.

[m2711c]

[Danno]

oooh, lawyer fight. Can we give them nerf swords or something?

[El Chupacabra]

oooh, lawyer fight. Can we give them nerf swords or something?

Silk necktie slap fight.

[BmillsSkier]

Silk necktie slap fight.

Go on...

[Mazderati]

$10 on the blue gabardine.

[MakersTeleMark]

I wear my Phish antelope tie on on jury selection days, it hits with the red crowd and they have no idea. You can all fuck me now. Sometimes, it's the Jerry Garica tie honestly from the early 90's. Same same. Ha. Compete with that Jerry!

[Danno]

Silk necktie slap fight.

[XXX-er]

I would have thot one of you could have given us a decent opinion while double billing a client

[Dantheman]

Just to point out a bit of clarification, what you are talking about in your Merrill broker example is non-solicitation (of clients, employees, targets) and those are still enforceable.

Interestingly, we recently brought on a new PM that had a client that wanted to follow her over. Her previous employment contract had a 12-month non-solicitation clause and we told the client we couldn't take them on because of it. They came back and basically said, "You're not soliciting us, we unilaterally deciding to move to a different firm. We can work with whoever we want." Corporate legal read that and gave us the green light to move forward.

[BmillsSkier]

Interestingly, we recently brought on a new PM that had a client that wanted to follow her over. Her previous employment contract had a 12-month non-solicitation clause and we told the client we couldn't take them on because of it. They came back and basically said, "You're not soliciting us, we unilaterally deciding to move to a different firm. We can work with whoever we want." Corporate legal read that and gave us the green light to move forward.

Corporate legal is absolutely correct. So long as your new PM with the non-solicit didn't actively solicit clients of her prior firm to follow her, and that client made their own decision to move to a new (your) firm, you and your PM are good to go. That said, anyone can sue anybody for anything so there's no bar on her former firm attempting to make a claim against her under her non-solicit, but their likelihood of success would be low given the fact pattern above.

[XXX-er]

That said, anyone can sue anybody for anything .

I have friends who are lawyers I don't even mind skiing with them but that ^^ part alwasy worries me

[XXX-er]

That said, anyone can sue anybody for anything .

I have friends who are lawyers I don't even mind skiing with them but that ^^ part alwasy worries me

[BmillsSkier]

I have friends who are lawyers I don't even mind skiing with them but that ^^ part alwasy worries me

That's not a lawyer problem, that's a client problem, and if we have to point fingers at attorneys, it's a litigator problem.

Apologies to all my litigator friends.

[Kevo]

I worked for a CO based mobile app company that sold for over $100MM in 2013. Only like 3 people had equity. I was younger and it was during the recession- I didn't have the leverage to negotiate for equity.

After the sale, the company reorganized under a new LLC owned by the new parent company. Everyone including front desk staff, UI artists and developers was given a new employment agreement to sign that included a non-compete written by Cooley LLP that said that the employee agreed not to work for another mobile app company or any company that interfaced with mobile apps anywhere in the world for a year if they left the company for any reason.

The new employment agreement also included an NDA.

Almost everyone signed it on day one. A few negotiated geographic terms.

I flat out refused to sign it. My boss was hounded to get me to sign. I refused. The CFO was sent out to get me to sign- "We just need to dot some Is and cross some Ts for the acquisition- did you forget to sign this? Oh, well we really need you to sign this". I refused. The head of my department told me I needed to sign or else. I told him I wouldn't, and I would only talk about it with the CEO since he was the one countersigning.

Finally after about 8 months, the CEO pulled me into his office- "So, you don't like the noncompete? What if I fired you right now for not signing it?"

I told him that I wasn't bound to an NDA with the new legal entity where I had worked for the better part of a year and that if he fired me I would go compete against him and wouldn't hold back on disclosing whatever I wanted about the company.

He relented.

I've seen variations of that same ridiculous noncompete written by the same law firm at two other CO based tech companies where I have worked. I've also seen it enforced against people who left for better opportunities, which ruined people's lives and careers for no reason. Fuck all of that nonsense.

It looks like noncompetes were heavily restricted in CO in the 2022 legislative session, so that is nice to see.

[neufox47]

Were you all offered any consideration for signing it?


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[dunfree]

They were most likely offered some token consideration that passed muster with legal but didn’t approach the value. That’s the way life is for many. Place’s like Jimmy John’s having sandwich makers sign NCAs was the supreme abuse.