Peter A. Steinmeyer, Member of the Firm in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s Chicago office, was quoted in Law360, in “4 Noncompete Developments from 2018’s First Half,” by Braden Campbell. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
In the first half of 2018, judges have continued to rip up broad noncompete agreements, while the Trump administration has kept in place an Obama-era policy aiming to punish businesses that agree not to hire each other’s workers. Here, Law360 looks at four recent developments in restrictive covenant law that attorneys should have on their radar.
‘Janitor Rule’ Ruling
Though it’s ultimately up to a judge whether a given noncompete agreement is valid, employee mobility attorneys often use a rule of thumb to identify clearly illegal contract applications, according to Epstein Becker Green board member Peter Steinmeyer.
The rule, he says, states that “if the restriction is so broad that it would prohibit an employee from working as a janitor for a competitor, then it’s very unlikely to be enforced by a judge.” …
Steinmeyer described the rulings as examples “of the sort of national trends of what we’re seeing in terms of judicial hostility to noncompetes.”
