Monthly Archives: July 2009

This week, a top Patrick administration official — Gregory Bialecki, Secretary, Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development — posted on his office’s blog the Administration’s current views on the noncompete debate in Massachusetts.   (Many thanks to Brad MacDougall, of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, for bringing this to my attention.) This is a significant development; until now, the Patrick administration has taken no position on the issue,… More

On Wednesday, July 22, I participated in the Boston Bar Association’s symposium on employee noncompete agreements in Massachusetts. (I posted the announcement for it here.  A picture is here.) First of all, I want to thank Steve Chow of Burns & Levinson for the opportunity to participate in the panel discussion. I am not going to attempt to summarize here all of the very interesting points made during the event.… More

As reported in Xconomy, the effort to abolish noncompetes in Massachusetts except in sale of business situations has had a significant setback.  Rep. William Brownsberger, who introduced a bill to accomplish that goal earlier this year, has now combined forces with Rep. Lori Ehrlich (who had proposed a milder limitation on noncompetes) to introduce a compromise bill that would permit continued enforcement of noncompetes, but with several restrictions.  I won’t catalog all of them now,… More

In a recent post at Innovation Economy, Scott Kirsner describes a discussion he had with an attorney who has been involved with negotiating severance deals for several employees.  The attorney has sought to avoid future noncompete complications for his clients by essentially trading severance pay for noncompete relief.  The attorney told Kirsner that “employees can often get released from the non-competes by giving up about 25% of their severance payment.”  This may be a desirable outcome for departing executives,… More

The Boston Bar Association has organized an event — open to the public (and free) — on the various bills that would significantly alter the law governing non-competition agreements in Massachusetts.   The panel of speakers will include yours truly (speaking in this setting for the “status quo”) as well as the following:

• State Rep. William N. Brownsberger, Esq., Sponsor of H. 1794 (bill to eliminate non-competes)
• Russell Beck,…

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