Protecting Your Business Using Restrictive Covenants
If used in the right way, restrictive covenants, whether in a contract of employment or a settlement agreement, can be be valuable tools in protecting your business. However, unless they are meticulously drafted by an expert employment lawyer and tailored for both your business and the particular employee in question, restrictive covenants are unlikely to be enforceable.
Restrictive covenants must go no further than is reasonably necessary to protect your legitimate business interests, as otherwise they are not worth the paper they are written on.
But what do “reasonably necessary” and “legitimate business interest” mean? It is important to have an employment law expert review or better still draft your restrictive covenants to ensure that they will be effective in protecting your business. If a restrictive covenant is not drafted in a way to make it enforceable, then there is no point having the restrictive covenant as it will not protect your business interests.
Protect Your Organisation
We help employers in London and throughout the UK. Our team of forward-thinking, commercial employment solicitors offers specialist expertise on restrictive covenants, team moves and injunctions.
We can assist your business at an early stage reviewing or drafting new contracts of employment and restrictive covenants, to ensure your business is adequately protected should a valued employee or team of employees leave your business for a competitor in the future.
When promoting a senior executive in your business you should consider whether you need to introduce, amend or increase restrictive covenants. If so any promotion or pay rise can be made conditional upon the employee signing up to new contract.
We advise employers who are recruiting from a competitor. We also act for businesses seeking to warn off former employees and their new employers from breaching restrictive covenants and whether necessary we can threaten or issue injunction proceedings.
We can review your contracts of employment and restrictive covenants and advise you on the most appropriate response to the departure of a team or individual.
In contentious situations, we can make or respond urgently to Court applications seeking or resisting injunctions at short notice. Getting advice as early as possible is crucial when an injunction may be required to prevent a team or an individual from damaging your business.
The employment team at Joelson can advise you on:
If you need help with your restrictive covenants please contact Jennifer Maxwell-Harris, employment partner at Joelson on 020 7580 5721.
In the context of a company acquisition, restrictive covenants can be extremely important for the buyer. These restrictive covenants can help to protect the buyer’s investment in the business by preventing key employees from leaving and taking valuable knowledge or clients with them.
Employee restrictive covenants are contractual provisions that restrict an employee's activities after they leave a company, with lots of things to consider as an employer.
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