It is happening. Slowly, states are making it easier for employers to enforce non-competes. Recently, the Texas Supreme Court abandoned a decade of precedent when it expanded the basis for supporting non-compete enforcement. Check out Michael P. Maslanka’s Work Matters blog on this topic. Maslanka states “[w]hile the employer won this case, many employers will lose in the long run. Noncompetes tie up talent, and it is the movement of talent that creates what the concurrence calls “economic dynamism.” Amen.
Next door in Georgia, the state has amended the constitution to change its non-compete law. How much so? The Georgia Non-Compete and Trade Secrets News blog says this: “This new law makes it significantly easier for employers to enforce non-competes and other restrictive covenants against former employees, at least with respect to restrictive covenants in contracts that are signed from this point forward and are thus governed by the new law.” Here is a blog post by Trade Secret/Non-Compete that provides a brief description of the law. The change went into effect in May 2011. However, the Georgia constitution now grants courts to blue pencil non-competes, which South Carolina courts still refuse to do.