David Woolf and Mark E. Furlane's article, United States: The Fired Employee's Non-Compete Agreement, provides a good overview of the impact of an employer's termination of an employee (with or without cause) on the employer's efforts to later enforce a noncompete agreement signed by the terminated employee. Since noncompete agreements "remain creatures of equity," they encourage employers to address this issue on the front-end:
So what should an employer who, arguably, wants to have his cake and eat it too do? First, think about the issue in the drafting stage and make sure that your agreement expressly provides that the restrictions apply whether the employee is terminated voluntarily or involuntarily and regardless of the reason. Leaving such language out can give a court an easy reason to deny enforcement.
You can read the entire article here.
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