Negotiating

The desire to obtain an employment opportunity or retain a current job may result in employees signing covenants now that they will later regret.

Signer's Regret

Many departing employees are shocked to learn that their ability to earn a living in their field or current location is seriously damaged because they signed a covenant that is overly restrictive.

While courts may be protective of the right to earn a living, there is also a strong undercurrent of legal thought that suggests that contracts should simply be enforced as written.  IN 1682, Lord Nottingham, the Lord Chancellor of England said:

If a man will improvidently bind himself up by a voluntary deed, and not reserve a liberty to himself by a power of revocation, this court will not loose the fetters he hath put upon himself, but he must lie sown under his own folly....*

Is it enforceable?

The first step in determining whether a person should attempt to negotiate a covenant or refuse to sign it is to have a clear understanding of whether and to what extent the covenant may be legally enforced in the future.  Consult Lewis Page for an assessment of the future enforceability of a covenant.  Click here, for information about fees.

Options to lessen the burden of the covenant.

Even if an employer insists on execution of a covenant of some type, the legal design of covenants varies widely, and it may be possible to negotiate small changes in language to a covenant that will provide the employee much greater leeway in seeking new employment once employment ends.  Consult Lewis Page for options that may be employed to make a covenant more reasonable for the employee while providing the employer at least some of the protection that employer seeks in requesting the covenant.

*Villers v. Beaumont, 1 Vern. 101, 101, 23 Eng. Rep. 342 (Ch. 1682)