{"id":78,"date":"2016-11-03T16:28:15","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T20:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/?p=78"},"modified":"2016-11-04T13:57:42","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T17:57:42","slug":"white-house-recommends-non-compete-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/2016\/11\/03\/white-house-recommends-non-compete-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Recommends Non-Compete Reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Shannon Hampton Sutherland and Gregory S. Bombard<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last week, the White House called on states to enact sweeping reforms to their non-compete laws. The White House\u2019s new policy position is that \u201cmost workers should not be covered by a non-compete agreement\u201d and that, although \u201ceach state faces different circumstances,\u201d many employers have sufficient other targeted remedies to protect their legal interests.<\/p>\n<p>In its policy statement, the White House called on states to enact \u201cnon-compete\u201d reforms, including one or more of the following:<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A ban on non-competes for certain categories of workers, such as low-wage workers, workers in certain occupations that \u201cpromote public health and safety,\u201d workers who do not likely possess trade secrets, or workers who are laid off or terminated without cause;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Increased transparency and fairness, including, for example,\n<ul>\n<li>requiring that non-compete terms be communicated to prospective employees before acceptance of a job offer or promotion,<\/li>\n<li>requiring consideration in addition to continued employment in exchange for non-compete agreements, or<\/li>\n<li>encouraging employers to better inform workers about non-competes;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Increased incentives to employers to write enforceable contracts, such as:\n<ul>\n<li>voiding of non-compliant non-compete agreements, and<\/li>\n<li>implementing appropriate remedies or penalties for employers whose policies do not comply with state non-compete statutes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The White House\u2019s position on \u201cnon-competes\u201d does not appear to apply to trade secret protections, non-solicitation agreements, or non-disclosure agreements.<\/p>\n<p>You can read the White House\u2019s complete \u201cState Call to Action of Non-Compete Agreements\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/competition\/noncompetes-calltoaction-final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> .<\/p>\n<p>Non-compete reform has been a live political issue in many states in the past several years.\u00a0 The White House noted that at least 12 states considered reforms last year.\u00a0 Although this call to action from the White House is likely to reignite the debate in next year\u2019s legislative sessions, the White House\u2019s policy statement is just that &#8212; it simply represents the White House\u2019s take on these issues and does not have any legislative impact on employers or employees by itself unless the states pass their own reform measures.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, contact <a href=\"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/shannonhamptonsutherland.html\">Shannon Hampton Sutherland<\/a>, Co-Chair of the Duane Morris <a href=\"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/practices\/noncompete_and_trade_secrets.html\">Non-Compete and Trade Secrets Practice<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/gregorysbombard.html\">Gregory S. Bombard<\/a>, an active member of that Practice.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-description\" style=\"margin-left: 4em\">\n<h2 class=\"author-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/12\/bombardgregory.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/12\/bombardgregory.jpg\" alt=\"bombardgregory\" width=\"62\" \/><\/a>About Gregory S. Bombard<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: .9em\"><a style=\"text-decoration: none\" href=\"http:\/\/dmw3stage\/attorneys\/gregorysbombard.html\" target=\"_blank\">Read Gregory&#8217;s bio<\/a>. <a style=\"text-decoration: none\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/tag\/bombard\/\" target=\"_blank\">View all posts by Gregory S. Bombard<\/a><\/span>\u00a0\u2192<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Shannon Hampton Sutherland and Gregory S. Bombard Last week, the White House called on states to enact sweeping reforms to their non-compete laws. The White House\u2019s new policy position is that \u201cmost workers should not be covered by a non-compete agreement\u201d and that, although \u201ceach state faces different circumstances,\u201d many employers have sufficient other &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/2016\/11\/03\/white-house-recommends-non-compete-reforms\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;White House Recommends Non-Compete Reforms&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[34,54,13,46,59,57,83,77,78,120,31,11,121],"ppma_author":[156],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-bombard","tag-gregory-bombard","tag-non-compete","tag-non-competition","tag-non-solicit","tag-non-solicitation","tag-restrictive-covenants","tag-shannon-hampton-sutherland","tag-shannon-sutherland","tag-state-call-to-action-of-non-compete-agreements","tag-trade-secret","tag-trade-secrets","tag-white-house-recommends-non-compete-reforms"],"authors":[{"term_id":156,"user_id":85,"is_guest":0,"slug":"shsutherland","display_name":"Shannon Hampton Sutherland","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/12\/sutherlandshannon2-125x150.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Sutherland","first_name":"Shannon","job_title":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/shannonhamptonsutherland.html","description":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/shannonhamptonsutherland.html\">Read Shannon's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/tradesecretslaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}