Federal Court Throws Fifield Bright Line Rule On Illinois Restrictive Covenants

On Feb. 6, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois again cast doubt on the bright line rule adopted by an Illinois appellate court regarding what constitutes sufficient consideration for a restrictive covenant.

In Fifield v. Premier Dealer Services, Inc., a 2013 Illinois appellate court decision, the court created a bright line rule that initial or continued at-will employment was only sufficient consideration for post-employment restrictive covenants if the employee remained employed for two years. The Fifield holding sent employers scrambling to rewrite restrictive covenants and to provide additional forms of consideration to ensure that courts would not decline enforcement for lack of adequate consideration.