A New Era of MA Noncompete Law Begins on Oct. 1
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A New Era of MA Noncompete Law Begins on Oct. 1
As previously reported, the new Massachusetts law governing non-competition agreements takes effect on Monday, October 1. A comprehensive summary of the law is here. The most significant takeaways are the following:
The law applies to post-employment noncompetes entered into on or after October 1, 2018 by Massachusetts workers and residents.
The law does not apply to other kinds of restrictions, including non-solicitation agreements. It also does not apply to noncompete restrictions that apply during employment.
Noncompetes…
SJC Refuses to Enforce Massachusetts Non-Compete on California Employee
On September 7, 2018, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court refused to enforce a non-competition and non-solicitation agreement between a Massachusetts company and its California-based former employee who joined the employer’s competitor in California. The SJC reached this decision, in Oxford Global Resources v. Hernandez, even though the agreement was expressly governed by Massachusetts law and designated Massachusetts as the forum for all disputes concerning the agreement. The case highlights the difficulties multi-state employers face in attempting…
Governor Baker Signs Noncompete Bill
As expected, yesterday (August 10, 2018) Governor Baker signed the new Massachusetts noncompete bill into law. A summary of the law is here. Although some industry groups were urging the governor to reject the bill or send it back to the legislature to correct flaws and ambiguities, he signed it without changes.
The law takes effect on October 1 and will apply to non-competition agreements entered into on and after that date. Employers of…
MA Legislature Passes Noncompete Reform Bill
MA Legislative Session Ends Without Noncompete Compromise
The Massachusetts legislature ended its 2015-16 session last night without reaching a compromise on a bill to significantly reform the law of non-competition agreements in the Commonwealth. Negotiations continued late into the waning hours of the session, but legislators could not resolve the significant differences between the competing reform visions represented by the House and Senate bills. Early reports indicate that the final disagreement was focused on the garden leave requirement, with the Senate’s bill requiring full…
MA Senate Passes Stringent Noncompete Bill
As expected, the Massachusetts Senate last night passed comprehensive legislation on non-competition agreements that imposes significantly more stringent requirements and limitations on noncompetes than is present in the legislation passed by the House two weeks ago (which already would significantly alter current law). The bill passed by the full Senate differs only slightly from the the proposal advanced by the Rules Committee earlier this week and described in this post. The only material change…
MA Senate’s Proposed Noncompete Bill is MUCH More Stringent Than House Bill
The Massachusetts Senate’s Committee on Rules is advancing legislation on noncompetes that differs markedly from the bill passed by the House and described here last week. (Thank you to Brad MacDougall of AIM for bringing this to my attention.) The bill, S.2418, is structured similarly to the House bill, but has the following significant differences:
Noncompetes generally would be limited to 3 months in duration, compared with 12 months in the House bill;
Garden leave pay would…