Restrictive covenants

New and updated

• Type:

  Employment law manual

  Common contract terms

  Updated to include information on the Government's response to its consultation on exclusivity clauses.

• Type:

  Policies and documents

  Contract clause on post-termination restrictions (restrictive covenants)

  Updated to include information on Quilter Private Client Advisers Ltd v Falconer and another, in which the notice period was a factor in determining if the non-compete clause was enforceable.

• Date:

  1 February 2021

  Type:

  Commentary and analysis

  Employment law changes: Seven major proposals that may progress in 2021

  Many proposed employment law changes that the Government has put forward in the last few years have stalled, mainly as a result of the focus on Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. Which proposals could be resurrected in 2021 and what would they mean for employers?

• Type:

  Consultations

  Consultation on measures to reform non-compete clauses

  The Government consults on restricting the use of non-competition, restrictive covenants, to foster business innovation.

• Date:

  7 December 2020

  Type:

  Commentary and analysis

  Reforming non-competes? 'Anti-business, worrying, unnecessary'

  Five lawyers share their reactions to the consultation on reforming non-competes.

• Date:

  25 August 2020

  Type:

  Commentary and analysis

  Should you enforce restrictive covenants during a pandemic?

  Non-compete clauses and other restrictive covenants are often used to prevent an employee from taking an organisation's commercial secrets to a competitor when they leave. But is it fair to enforce them when job opportunities are limited? Imogen Finnegan, senior consultant at Bellevue Law, weighs up the pros and cons.

• Date:

  19 November 2019

  Type:

  Law reports

  Employee "blackmailed" into signing restrictive covenants was unfairly dismissed

  In Ward v Fiducia Comprehensive Financial Planning Ltd, an employment tribunal upheld a claim for constructive unfair dismissal, finding that the employer had put inappropriate and excessive pressure on the employee to agree to an extended restrictive covenant following his resignation.

• Type:

  How to

  How to draft restrictive covenants

  Updated to reflect changes to the rules on interpreting restrictive covenants outlined by the Supreme Court in Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd.

• Type:

  FAQs

  Will the courts always enforce restrictive covenants?

• Date:

  4 July 2019

  Type:

  Law reports

  Supreme Court rules on correct test for severance in restrictive covenants

  In Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal and held that a six-month non-compete clause was enforceable because the unenforceable part of the clause was capable of being severed.