The formal session of the Massachusetts legislature ended on July 31. During the session, five bills to amend the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (MNAA) had been introduced, together with one study order concerning noncompetes.
I previously discussed the four bills that had been pending as of last year. Those bills were as follows: one to ban all employee noncompetes, two (one in the Senate and one in the House) to ban noncompetes for physician assistants, and one to “clarify” that the meaning of “terminated without cause” can be “defined by the parties in the noncompete agreement . . . .”
Since that post, there was a fifth noncompete bill (S.1246) introduced. That bill was to ban noncompetes for veterinarians.
Although there was some movement on the bills, the formal legislative session ended without any of the bills passing. Accordingly, the MNAA remains unchanged. While it is theoretically possible for one or more of the bills to pass, that would (as I understand it) require unanimity, which (no shock) is highly unlikely.
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If you are looking for a quick summary of the noncompete laws in all 50 states, our 50-state noncompete chart (created in 2010 and updated regularly since to keep track of the ever-changing noncompete laws) is always available here.
*A huge thank you to Erika Hahn for all of her extraordinary help in monitoring all of the bills!