Many of us were waiting with bated breath to see how the noncompete legislation in Rhode Island would play out this session.
Spoiler alert: It ended just as you would expect — with a veto of a bill proposing a full ban.
As you may remember, on June 17, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee signed a law creating an exemption for advanced practice registered nurses from Rhode Island’s noncompete law.
As you may also remember, three days later (June 20), the Legislature sent the Governor two bills to ban all noncompetes. Those bills would have rendered the law he just signed moot before it even took effect.
And it wasn’t like the legislature wasn’t considering both options, and have all of the bills, at the same time. They were and they did.
Yet, they sent the Governor the limited exception, got him to sign that into law, and then sent him the full ban. In what world does that make sense?
Not in Governor McKee’s world. He did the only sane thing: He vetoed it. (Technically, he vetoed two bills — one from the Senate and one from the House.)
Putting aside the ridiculous process that would have mooted brand new legislation just days after it was enacted, Governor McKee’s decision is consistent with the trend.
If you’re keeping tally, it’s three to one: three proposed bans have been vetoed and only one has passed.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Maine Governor Janet Mills, and now Governor McKee have all vetoed complete bans. Only Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz bought into the hype and signed a complete ban.
Next step: Will the Legislature override the veto? Do they have the votes? (Probably.) Do they have the time? (Probably not — unless they’ve already laid all the groundwork.) The session ends in three days. Crazier things have happened.
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Firm resources:
We know how hard it is to keep up with the ever-changing requirements around the country. To help, we have created the following resources (available for free):
- 50-State Noncompete Law Chart, the first of its kind and regularly updated (downloadable PDF) (to be updated for Rhode Island’s nurse exemption);
- Chart of Noncompete “Low-Wage” Thresholds and Criteria (downloadable);
- Notice requirements summary chart, providing details for each of the 8 states (plus D.C.) that has notice requirements related to noncompetes (downloadable PDF);
- 50-State and Federal Trade Secret Law Chart, providing a comparison of the trade secrets laws nationally to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (downloadable PDF).
- “Changing Trade Secrets | Noncompete Laws” (dedicated blog page) now provides a current detailed summary of the changing landscape of trade secret laws and noncompete laws around the country, state by state and at the federal level;
- Trade secret and other legitimate business interest protection plan strategy and checklist; and
- Ten Minute Trade Secret Training Series, currently with three training videos and one “basics” video:
We hope you find all of these resources useful. More are coming.
And please note that we are grateful for all of the input we’ve received over the years, and welcome any suggestions for improvements that you may be willing to share.
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*A huge thank you to Erika Hahn for all of her extraordinary help in tracking and monitoring all of the bills around the country and helping me make sure that all of our resources are current and accurate!