Non-competes and non-solicits - Page 2

Non-competes are actually illegal in CA.

See:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BAUH12716R.DTL

If the company continues to pay you after you "leave", it strikes me that it's not a non-compete but rather a paid leave, during which time the Company can still direct your work (i.e. direct you to do none).

The way I see it, a "solicit" is something along the lines of:
"howdy Client, I used to work at Company A. I'm at Company B now. You should do business with us instead as we're better/cheaper/smarter/better looking..."

whereas, this is perfectly fine IMHO
"Hi Mr. X. I want to introduce you to Company B. We are an excellent company doing XYZ and I would like an opportunity to talk you to our services".

The first is a solicitation based on your relationship from Company A. The second is essentially a marketing call. Yes, you hope the person would recognize your name etc. but otherwise, you aren't doing anything further.

Now if you do happen to know that you can be cheaper or whatever, then when you meet I think it's a-okay to take advantage of that knowledge.

Whether a non-compete is enforceable or not, the legal bills resulting from the former employer's lawsuit is often deterent (or punishment) enough. Friends of mine here just left a large engineering firm to start their own. They are now being sued for stealing contacts and "proprietary information" and a bunch of other stuff. Their attorneys say they'll win, but the legal bills will be stiff, and the courts might not make the plaintiff pay.

"gardening leave" AKA paid time-off while the non-compete runs is fairly standard practice for a lot of industries. make sure to negotiate this at the very least - I've seen several structured with the company's option to (A) enforce the non-compete but pay gardening leave or (B) forgo gardening leave and release the employee from non-compete obligations. despite the ambiguous legality of many non-competes, i would be wary of blatently violating one of these provisions. don't underestimate the time and legal costs associated with defending one of these claims - especially by a former employer with in house counsel, big balance sheet, etc..

My understanding of finance non-solicit is that they are almost impossible to enforce as your current clients are most likely current / potential clients of your new firm. Would be different if you started your firm though (the Genuity founders were sued when it started, but i don't know if anything ever came out of it although i think they were sued for soliciting CIBC's employees, not clients). Just make sure to download your outlook contacts before quitting as they will likely remove your IT privileges and wipeout your BB the second you quit.

Thanks!