Non-Compete Agreement - How Long To Sign?

[Vycor]

NY State.

I was given a non-compete agreement to sign on Friday. How long should I be allowed to look over this contract before handing it back to the employer? Hes expecting it on Monday but thats only a weekend to look it over. I don't have official "legal" counsel but have friends who are very smart in high places that I was hoping to have look it over to see if im covered in case I ever left.

Its basically a contract for 3 years. It doesnt stop me from working in the same field just for working for any clients my current employer has done work for for a period of 3 years after i leave/etc... It makes sense on the employers side, but as an employee i know it puts me in a pickle if i left and then a year later a client called me direct wanting my services... id have to say no.

But still want to look it over and do my homework before i sign "my life away".

 

[pattytx]

Legally, they could have required you sign it immediately. And legally, they could fire or refuse to hire you if you refuse.

Three years appears to be overly long, but I don't know how NY interprets these, especially since it only limits you to clients of the company. Is there a geographic range?

 

[Vycor]

No geographic range, just from doing work directly or indirectly with clients of the company i work for while i was working for them... so if i quit and they got a new client, i technically could work for that new client if i wanted, since they were not clients at my time of employment.

 

[cyjeff]

I strongly recommend running this past counsel... failing that, I will say that 3 years is the longest non-compete I have ever personally heard of.

The length of time alone would make this very difficult to enforce... but I have been wrong before.

 

[pattytx]

Here, basically, are your choices:

Ask for, say, a week to contact counsel and have the agreement reviewed.

If they say, sign it immedidately or you're fired (or not hired), your choice--you can either lose your job (or not have a job) over this OR you can sign it now. If the length of time and the fact that there is no geographic restriction makes the agreement unenforceable, you've lost nothing.

Any decent employer would give you the time to have it reviewed. If they don't, it's very possible that THEY haven't had it vetted by counsel, and therefore THEY have no idea whether it's enforceable or not.

 

[You Are Guilty]

There is no hard and fast rule in NY as to enforceability of NCAs. Three years is about the outside edge of what the courts will find reasonable, assuming the rest of the contract is as well. Here, an undefined geographical scope is likely going to be found unenforceable (depending on your specific job). Given the importance of keeping your job, you might want to find a local employment lawyer and run the contract past him or her ASAP, like, today.

http://www.nysba.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_Lawyer&Template=/CustomSource/LegalInfobyCounty.cfm&cty=lrs

Good luck.

 

[wrongsometimes]

Right now it does not matter if its enforceable or not. You will not get hired unless you sign. So saying to them (even of correctly) that its unenforceable would result in you not getting hired. So, I would sign it & take the job & worry about it at another time. I would not work for my company's former clients ... it is just too easy to claim that I violated trade secrets & have to deal with a civil suit.

 

[pattytx]

Right now it does not matter if its enforceable or not. You will not get hired unless you sign. So saying to them (even of correctly) that its unenforceable would result in you not getting hired.

The OP did not indicate whether this was his current employer or a prospective employer. Also, the OP did not indicate that it was a sign-or-else situation.

Your honor, assuming facts not in evidence.