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For full disclosure I am not a lawyer and you should talk to counsel before signing anything.

I speak with podiatrists regularly and many of them have signed non-compete agreements. The most lopsided seem to be with company's that we compete with i.e. providing podiatric care to seniors in senior housing and skilled nursing facilities.

What we ask as a company of our new providers is that you stay out of our accounts that you serviced for 12 months if you choose to leave us. You are free to go across the street or anywhere you are licensed to practice podiatry.

I have seen agreements by our competitors that exclude communities, but also areas within a 25 mile radius around communities. In one case an entire state was effectively excluded.

 

My understanding is that the more lopsided a non-compete agreement is, the more likely a court is to reject it.

 

In some places they are not enforceable anyway. That does not mean that they should not be used to discourage the kind of behavior that they are designed to discourage.

 

Craig, you are correct but there are two problems.

The first is that many companies don't have the time or energy to fight it. They will move on to someone else.

The second is your costs for legal counsel. Even if you prevail do you get that covered?

 

Always assume they are enforceable.

 

the thing is lawyers don't do noncompetes for themselves----they believe they are unethical. I am not a fan of noncompetes either. Got too much of a libertarian streak