Wednesday, July 8, 2009

July 22nd Event on Non-Competes... New Blog... And Some Advice

- Attorney Stephen Chow has put together what looks to be a really solid evening about the pending Massachusetts legislation that could change the status quo here with regard to non-compete agreements. It's free, it takes place on July 22nd in Boston, and I'm attending in the hopes that at least some of it will be comprehensible to non-lawyers. Perhaps you will, too?

Find out more or register for the event here.

Speakers will include:

  • State Rep. William N. Brownsberger, Esq., Sponsor of H. 1794 (bill to eliminate non-competes)
  • Russell Beck, Esq., Foley & Lardner, LLP, Drafter of H. 1799 (bill to restrict non-competes)
  • Stephen Y. Chow, Esq., Burns & Levinson LLP, Massachusetts Uniform Law Commission, Drafter of H. 87, Symposium organizer
  • Michael L. Rosen, Esq., Foley Hoag LLP, Author of the Massachusetts Noncompete Law Blog, Speaking for the status quo
  • Hon. Gordon L. Doerfer (Ret.), JAMS, Moderator
  • Dr. Matthew Marx, MIT Sloan School, Investigator on longitudinal study of electrical engineer parties to non-compete agreements

- Foley & Lardner's Russell Beck, one of the speakers at the July 22nd event, has just launched a new blog dedicated to trade secret and non-compete issues.

- I was talking to an attorney last week who offered some good advice. Non-competes, unfortunately, are enforceable even if you are part of a lay-off at your company. This attorney said he has been involved in negotiating severance deals with several employees to make sure they're not targeted by their former employer if they want to go and work or start a company in the same field. In these negotiations, he has found that employees can often get released from their non-competes by giving up about 25 percent of their severance payment. Interesting...

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1 Comments:

Blogger AK said...

Scott,

I think this is an important debate and look forward to being at this event.

It may not be "the popular point of view" but I happen to be in favor of meaningful non-competes.

My thoughts are at http://hypecycles.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/defense-of-non-competes/

and there are (I think) much better options than the Government mandated outlawing of non-competes that some are advocating.

Thanks!

July 9, 2009 10:08 PM  

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