Sometimes an employer’s greatest legal concerns do not arise until after an employee has left the company. Unfortunately, it may be too late at that point for the employer to adequately protect its interests.
In the absence of a restrictive covenant, commonly referred to as a noncompete agreement, in an employment agreement, a company’s former employees are generally free to immediately go to work for a competitor, to solicit their former employer’s customers and employees and to disclose confidential information that does not rise to the level of a trade secret. This relative freedom can result in great harm to the previous employer, particularly in instances where the former employee had particularly strong relationships with customers, vendors or other employees or where the former employee had access to significant and potentially damaging business information. In short, unless a company requires that its employees execute legally enforceable restrictive covenants there may be no way to prevent former employees from taking the training and knowledge a company provided them and putting them to work for a direct competitor.
Maryland has enacted a law that prohibits employers from including a noncompete or conflict of interest provision in...
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