Calif. Ruling Eases Anti-Noncompete Standard For Employers

For years, employers seeking to break new employees' noncompete agreements with former employers moved them to California. Sometimes they get homesick and move back, disrupting the employer's strategy. But lawyers have continued to pass along this advice to their clients in an attempt to escape the vice grip of a noncompete agreement executed in another state. The reason: California Business and Professions Code Section 16600 states that "every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void."