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ARTICLE · 11 FEBRUARY 2013

2013 Noncompete Reform Effort Will Focus On Durational Limits

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A discussion on the new approach for reforming the law of noncompetition agreements in the Commonwealth.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen
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The Massachusetts legislature has begun a new, two-year session, and with it comes a pared-down approach to reforming the law of noncompetition agreements in the Commonwealth.  The two principal sponsors of past reform legislation, Senator (previously Rep.) Will Brownsberger and Rep. Lori Erhlich, explained in a recent Boston Business Journal piece that they are introducing a new bill intended to address objections from smaller businesses about attorney's fees shifting provisions in the previous bill.  Thus, they explained, they are focusing their efforts on a simpler bill:

In the version that we will file this year, we have sought to simplify our approach, focusing on a single dimension — the term of the noncompete agreement. Our proposal is that agreements with a term of longer than six months would be presumed unreasonable. That leaves some flexibility for an employer to persuade a court that a longer term is reasonable. However, if an agreement with a term

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