As you know, over the past several years, there have been changes to the noncompete laws in 24 states — plus D.C., and in some states (such as Illinois, Oregon, and Nevada), there have been multiple changes over that time. Just this year alone, there were 66 noncompete bills pending in 25 states1 — plus three pending federal noncompete bills, D.C.’s new law to ban most noncompetes, and a bill to rein in D.C’s new law before it becomes effective (which is anticipated to be in April 2022).
Given all the activity, in 2018, the Uniform Law Commission began the process creating a uniform noncompete law. I participated as a so-called “observer,” providing input along the way.
Yesterday (September 28, 2021), the ULC officially released the Uniform Restrictive Employment Agreement Act (“UREAA” – yep). A PDF is available here and a Word version here.
A tremendous amount of work went into developing the UREAA, including dozens of meetings and consensus building. In the end, there are many aspects of the UREAA which I think hit the nail on the head, and some I think miss. Take a read and see what you think.
I will post an analysis soon.
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[1] The 25 states are: Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.