One of the key considerations when drafting employee non-solicitation agreements entails “Avoiding Ambiguous or Overreaching Employee Non-solicitation Agreements.” Regarding this consideration, it is illogical to impose a restriction without a time limit. Generally, any restrictive covenant made to last up to one year is presumably reasonable. However, the further out the restriction goes, from 1 year and beyond, the more it becomes unreasonable. Accordingly, it goes without saying that an employee non-solicitation agreement with an unlimited time frame may be deemed unreasonable.
As a continuation of this discussion, we have reviewed “Avoiding Ambiguous or Overreaching Employee Non-solicitation Agreements,” another key consideration every employer must factor into drafting valid, enforceable employee non-solicitation agreements under the law.
Avoiding Ambiguous or Overreaching Employee Non-solicitation Agreements
Usually, an employee non-solicitation agreement may be rendered unenforceable when terms such as “encourage” and “influence” are used as a way of expanding the reach beyond employee solicitation, since such usage is considered too broad. Instead, a knowledge requirement should be included to avoid such an issue since it helps in qualifying the obligation not to solicit employees. For instance, a qualified employee non-solicitation agreement may be something like “the employee agrees that for a period of twelve months after the termination of his/her employment, the employee will not intentionally or knowingly encourage or induce a company employee to sever his/her relationship with the company.”
Another non-solicitation agreement that may be deemed enforceable can be something like, “the employee agrees that for a period of twelve months after the termination of his or her employment, the employee will not (a) take part in any way with another entity or person, if the purpose of such contact is to induce or cause the company employee server his or her relationship of employment with the company and/or (b) knowingly communicate with a Company employee.” Generally speaking, such employee non-solicitation agreements may be deemed enforceable in a court of law.
In Part V of this series, we will shift gears and mark the start of five additional blog posts that will dwell on five key considerations for every employer when drafting client/customer non-solicitation agreements. Specifically, we will hammer on “Defining Clients that will be Specifically Covered by the Non-solicitation Agreement and Determining the Scope of Prohibited Customer Solicitation,” which encompasses a critical consideration that every employer must factor in when drafting valid client/customer non-solicitation agreements that would be enforceable under the law.
In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!
Always rising above the bar,
Isaac T.,
Legal Writer, Author, & Publisher.