Non-compete Clause

[anonymous]

I'm in field sales and was told by a colleague that I signed a non-compete agreement when I was hired. I cannot locate this document nor any verbiage relating to it in the Employment Agreement documents that I do have. With that, I have fulfilled my obligation to the company (2yrs) specific to the conditions related to my sign-on bonus.

Nonetheless according to my colleague, this clause prohibits me from being employed in field sales by any other pharma company for whom I would be promoting medications to the same disease specialists (whether rheumatology, cardiology, GI, et al) that I do currently.

Once I am able to secure a copy of it, what are the key factors I should look for in determining the viability and enforceability of such an agreement?

Thank you and to CafePharma, this is the best board you could ever have created!

 

[Charles Joseph]

Very generally, a non-competition agreement must have the following three things:

1) It must be supported by valid consideration. If you signed the agreement at the time of hiring, your job probably is sufficient consideration. However, if you signed after you started working, there would have to be some other consideration such as a promotion or a higher salary.

2) It must protect a legitimate business interest of your employer. For example, an employer can use a non-compete agreement to protect its relationships with customers and its confidential information.

3) Its terms must be reasonable in scope, geography, and time. For example, a non-compete agreement that said you could not work in your industry for the rest of your life probably would be unreasonable, but one that restricted you for the next 6 months may not be. Also, an agreement that prevented you from working for an employer on the west coast when you only worked with clients in one east coast city probably would be unreasonable. Typically, courts will not allow a non-competition agreement to prevent an employee from working in a geographical area where the employer does not do business.

Because the enforceability of a non-compete agreement is a case-by-case question that also depends on what state you are in, you probably want to have an experienced employment attorney take a look at your agreement.


You can read more about employee rights at https://www.workingnowandthen.com/.


This response is not legal advice, but is general information only, based upon the information stated in the question and general legal principles. It is provided for general educational purposes of the public who may have similar questions, not for any specific individual or circumstance. It is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship. Legal issues depend on all the specific facts of a situation, which are not present here. If you would like to obtain specific legal advice about your issue, you must contact a local attorney who is licensed to practice law in your state.