David Woolf Spoke to Bloomberg Law about Noncompete Agreements

Labor and employment partner David Woolf spoke with Bloomberg Law on the subject of void noncompete agreements due to the impending FTC ban.

The FTC regulation is set to take effect on September 4. Woolf said employers are taking “a change in approach” on drafting restrictive contracts.

For years states have taken the lead on restricting companies’ use of noncompetes and could continue to do so if the FTC rule is invalidated. California, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma ban virtually all employee noncompetes, and at least 11 other states plus Washington, D.C., restrict their use to higher-income or salaried employees.

Companies that have long used them “without doing a full legal analysis are now doing that,” he said. “Once it becomes the focus of regulatory and government action, they start to look at it more closely.”

The full article is available to Bloomberg subscribers.