Anti-raiding clauses in employment contracts prohibit departing employees from soliciting their former employer’s employees or independent contractors for a certain period of time after their departure. Such clauses are meant to ensure that the company’s departing employees does not entice their former co-workers to come work at a competitor’s company or their new business that they opened.
Anti-raiding clauses are also often used in contracts with vendors, clients, subcontractors, licensees and franchisees, to ensure that they do not take away the company’s key employees in an attempt to cut out the company or decrease their costs.
Only a limited number of jurisdictions have addressed the validity of these covenants, and the conclusions range everywhere from validity to prohibition. In Texas, the enforcement of anti-raiding clauses is governed by the same statute as the enforcement of non-compete covenants – Texas Covenants Not to Compete Act. The courts are more likely to enforce anti-raiding provisions and will apply easier standards to them, then they would with non-competes because they don’t find them quite as big of a restraint on trade as typical non-competes.
Contact Ms. Dolghih at (214) 949-4458 or Leiza.Dolghih@GodwinLewis.com to schedule your confidential consultation regarding your anti-raiding agreement or if you are looking to implement anti-raiding covenants to protect your business.