Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
A non-solicitation covenant is extremely helpful when it comes to protecting valuable business information when a company has expended substantial amounts to build a stable work force and has invested in developing permanent relationships or very long term relationships with its customers with long term contracts. The Court in Instant Tech., LLC v. DeFazio, 12 C 491, 2014 WL 1759184 (N.D. Ill. May 2, 2014) recently addressed the enforceability of non-solicitation covenants of former employees of an information technology company. The non-solicitation agreements barred soliciting customers to go to a competitor as well as employees of the IT staffing company.
Not to be confused with a non-compete agreement, non-solicitation covenants do not put a restriction on one’s ability to practice their trade or prohibit them from pursuing their chosen profession, as a restrictive covenant would. In this case, the definition of a client versus a candidate is where the Court draws the line when determining whether a violation the non-solicitation covenant occurred. Continue reading ›