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In standard employment agreements and related staffing contracts, companies often include both a non-compete clause and an arbitration clause.  They do so to protect against unfair employee competition, and against the costs and uncertainty of employees’ legal claims.  While arbitration clauses may assist in reducing costs from employment law claims, they are typically ill-suited for resolution of a non-compete dispute.  As a best practice, such arbitration clauses should exclude non-compete disputes from the scope of…

In the government contracts arena in the D.C. metropolitan area, agencies can change contractors and staff in a way that disrupts the plans of companies and their personnel.   Individuals often find themselves cut off from a project while still bound by non-competes and other contractual restrictions on their mobility. Nevertheless, employees can often, if careful, successfully navigate these situations through the legal process. If the non-compete is too restrictive and broad, it can be challenged

In ScanSource, Inc. v. The Thurston Group, LLC, in Maryland Federal District Court, a basic non-compete clause survived the first attack in litigation—a motion to dismiss – in part because the two parties had equal bargaining positions. The Thurston Group, LLC (“Thurston”) of Camp Springs, MD, tested the strength of a non-compete it had signed in an agreement with the South Carolina-based ScanSource, Inc.  The clause stated that Thurston would not “solicit, contact, or call upon any customer

Employees of county-funded private businesses whose positions are cut by the county in retaliation for exercising their freedom of speech have no retaliatory discharge claim against the county.  In Kensington Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. v. Montgomery County, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a Maryland federal court’s dismissal of retaliatory discharge claims brought by former employees of a private company that provided fire, rescue, and emergency services.  The plaintiffs claimed that the county cut funding for their positions

Employers stung by a claim or lawsuit by an employee – especially a baseless one by a particularly litigious employee —may want to minimize potential future liability by checking the litigation records of their potential new hires.  But, is this legal?  When it comes to the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), which regulates issues such as minimum wage and overtime, the answer is “yes,” according to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth