Non-Disclosure Agreements: Need to Establish Reasonable Boundaries to Protect What You Know and Have Achieved
A non-disclosure agreement serves to protect a business from the loss of intellectual property, trade secrets, and other special or proprietary information. While these agreements are commonly used in executive hiring, many executives do question them to the extent that they should.
When entering an employment relationship, it is important to establish clear boundaries that will enable you to continue working in your field if and when that relationship ends. I have found that resolving trade secret and disclosure issues decisively and proactively on the front-end prevents serious problems on an exit from the company. Trying to retrofit non-disclosure agreements upon leaving a position is not an easy process.
With extensive experience in the negotiation and crafting of these documents, I can help you delineate exceptions to confidential knowledge that you acquire in your position — and prevent unpleasant surprises down the road. I can also negotiate and work with our firm’s litigators on your behalf when a problematic situation unfolds.
Contact Robert Adelson, a Massachusetts non-compete lawyer, at rob@attorneyadelson.com or call 617-875-8665.
Non-Compete Agreements: Need to Protect Your Ability to Earn a Living
Non-compete agreements serve businesses by limiting employee attrition to their competitors and protecting their valuable client relationships. While these agreements are certainly fair in principle, they are often structured in a way that restricts the future ability of an employee to earn a living without providing adequate compensation. As with non-disclosure agreements, non-compete agreements are too often accepted by executives without sufficient question or scrutiny, despite the pitfalls that they may contain.
With many years of experience in dealing with non-compete agreements, I can help you make sure you are protected from effectively being removed from your field in the future, or help you develop contingencies if that is unavoidable. Specifically, I can work to ensure that:
- You understand clearly what your contract or agreement says about secret or proprietary information
- When necessary, documents are adjusted to specifically identify the competition
- If severance is not sufficient to cover the effects of a more restrictive non-compete agreement, your compensation provides what is lacking.
Tip: Restrictive covenants, non-competes, non-solicitations, confidentiality and assignment of inventions need to be negotiated so the executive is in a position to continue work in his or her field on termination of employment. The company has reasonable rights to protect its clientele, employees and trade secrets, but those protections need to be reasonable and not written to bar the executive from the field of his or her experience unless appropriate severance is paid.
Contact Non-Compete Agreement Attorney Robert Adelson
I am available to answer your specific questions, no matter how technical, about Massachusetts non-compete agreements and non-disclosure agreements. Contact me, a Boston employment law attorney, at rob@attorneyadelson.com or call 617-875-8665 to schedule an initial consultation.
