With increasing competition for talent in India Inc and lateral
movement of employees becoming commonplace, organizations have
created several mechanisms that seek to effectively protect their
proprietary knowledge, intellectual property, trade secrets, and
other sensitive information, while avoiding infringement of legal
and constitutional rights of employees. In this context,
non-solicitation, non-compete and garden leave arrangements in
employment agreements have gained significant traction,
particularly in the context of high-level executives.
At its core, a non-solicitation agreement restricts a former
employee from soliciting any of the employees, clients, customers
or vendors after the employee's departure from a business.
Similarly, non-compete agreements are designed to restrict
employees from joining competing firms for a specified duration
after leaving their current employer. While such agreements aim to
protect a company's interests, being restrictive
