Employment agreements often contain non-solicitation clauses to protect the company after employees leave the business. The risk to the business is that the former employee will “steal” the employees or customers of the business when they are no longer employed by the company. Clearly, companies have a significant financial interest in preventing their trained, educated employees from jumping ship. Similarly, a lot is at stake if former employees are able to draw customers away from the business.

To minimize these risks, many companies will require employees to sign non-solicitation agreements. A New York non-solicitation agreement is a document that restricts an individual or company from soliciting the employees or customers of a business after the individual or company ends its relationship with the business. However, interpreting and enforcing these covenants is difficult:

• Proving that a former employee solicited customers or employees is tough.
• Preventing employees from voluntarily choosing to leave one company to join another is difficult.
• Your New York non-solicitation provision may prevent you from using certain advertising or publicity, which is not always readily apparent.
• Certain types of employees, such as sales professionals and brokers, face extreme limitations if they are subject to a non-solicitation agreement, and therefore need legal guidance.

If your employment agreement contains such a provision, it is vital that you contact an experienced New York non-solicitation attorney to protect your legal rights and prevent unintentional violations of your contract.

For more information about non-solicitation and non-compete agreements, contact a New York non-compete agreement attorney at (888) 497-3410.