Employees are often required to execute employment contracts at
the start of their employ. In some cases, these contracts contain
"non-solicitation" clauses which seek to protect the
employer's business should the employee no longer remain
employed with the company. These "non-solicitation"
clauses will generally prohibit an employee from soliciting and/or
contacting the employer's customers and/or clients for a
certain period of time after the employment relationship ends.
But what if the employee does not sign an employment contract?
Are they prohibited from soliciting their former employer's
customers and/or clients?
The short answer is it depends.
A former employee, absent a restrictive covenant such as a
non-competition clause, or a fiduciary duty to his or her former
employer, has a right to compete with his or her former employer
and may bring to a new business the skills or knowledge acquired
while in the service of the former employer (Laplante
