Blog : Non-Competes

I’m going to walk you through the decisions to be made when drafting a Texas non-compete.

In this installment we move from the Sales Territory principle to the Holistic principle.

When the case involves a sales person or other low to mid-level employee, the Sales Territory principle will usually explain why the court found the geographic area reasonable or unreasonable.

File a non-compete lawsuit too soon, and you may not have evidence of imminent harm. But file it too late and . . .

Most non-competes have an “ipso facto” clause saying a breach is grounds for an injunction. Is that binding on the judge?

Can a Texas employer lay off an employee and then enforce the employee’s non-compete?

When I think about drafting a Texas non-compete, I think about these words to a song I liked in the 80s: Freedom of choice, is what you got. Freedom from choice, is what you want. It would be so much easier if we didn’t have so many choices, especially when drafting non-competes. You’ve got two basic choices at the start. You can just cut and paste from a form, like my Plain-Language Non-Compete, or you can take the time to consider the client’s particular needs, the legal issues raised, and the practical considerations, and then draft accordingly. If you do […]

Sometimes a Texas non-compete will take the form of forfeiture clause rather than an express prohibition on competing. Is that a non-compete?

A Texas non-compete litigator points out the biggest problems with the way non-competes work in practice.

Texas non-compete cases that predate the statute have principles that are still relevant today.