Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

On June 24, 2011, the Texas Supreme Court wrote the next chapter concerning the enforceability of non-compete agreements in Texas.  A company’s provision of stock options to employees was deemed satisfactory consideration for a non-compete agreement in Marsh USA Inc. and Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. v. Cook, --- S.W.3d ----, 2011 WL 2517019 (Tex., 2011).  The Court declared that stock options are reasonably related to the protection of a company’s goodwill, a business interest worthy of protection under the Covenants Not to Compete Act (CNCA).  Although goodwill is intangible, Texas law has long recognized that it is “a property and integral part of [a] business just as its physical assets are.” Marsh USA, Inc., 2011 WL 2517019 * 11. 

On July 20, 2010, Hunton & Williams LLP announced the release of the first edition treatise Privacy and Data Security Law Deskbook (Aspen Publishers).  The deskbook provides a detailed overview of the workplace issues affected by information privacy and data security law and is a practical one-stop loose-leaf guide for privacy professionals, compliance officers and lawyers responsible for privacy or data security.

In an effort to ride out the current economic storm, many businesses find themselves downsizing, conducting mass layoffs, and even declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy in an effort to survive.  These tough decisions inevitably lead to disgruntled former employees, whose ethics tend to take a backseat when it comes to “getting even” with their employers.