Lawyers for Restrictive Covenants in Employement Contracts

Restrictive covenants are complex contractual provisions which potentially may have significant consequences for employers when breached. Therefore, it is essential for any business to understand the role of restrictive covenants and the impact they can have on the future, both their own and that of existing or future employees.

While your employees are key to the success of your business, they can also present you with a certain amount of risk should any disputes arise. For this reason, if a member of staff’s service is coming to an end, you may wish to enforce restrictive covenants or confidentiality provisions, to protect your business interests from any issues that could arise should an employee move to a competitor.

As experts in all aspects of employment law, Analysis Legal can assist you in reviewing your existing contracts or by drafting restrictive covenant clauses and advising you on their introduction during a member of staff’s employment. A breach may have already occurred or you may be anticipating one. In either case, we can assist you with trying to seek a resolution or alternatively commencing action against a former employee.

Legitimacy of Restrictive Covenants

For a restrictive covenant to be enforceable, it must protect the company’s “legitimate business interests”. It must be made clear what the reason is for its implementation and the specific nature of the business interest it is designed to protect. Restrictive covenants can be found to be unenforceable if they are considered to be “too wide”, i.e. they place an unfair restriction on an employee’s ability to trade. Therefore, if a covenant goes beyond what is required to protect the business interest in question, it can be found to be unenforceable.

If an employer has materially breached an employee’s contract, then it is possible that this could also render the restrictive covenants void. As a business, you want provisions that you can ultimately rely on if necessary so it is important to get them drafted carefully at the outset.

As you can see, the law surrounding restrictive covenants and confidentiality is far from straightforward. However, help is at hand to guide you through this legal landscape and safeguard your business’ interests. Through adopting a pragmatic approach, we can advise you on how to legitimately ensure that your current contracts will protect your interests and how to adopt the best methods to safeguard information confidential to your organisation, such as client contacts and terms of business.

 

The Analysis Legal team has once again been recognised by The Legal 500 this years, which stated: "Praised by a plethora of businesses for its client focused and pragmatic advice, Analysis Legal LLP boasts a roster of blue-chip national and international clients for which it conducts a broad range of contentious and non-contentious employment work."

Why choose Analysis Legal?

At Analysis Legal, we are a team of specialist Employment Law Solicitors in Manchester. From our office in Stockport, we regularly help clients across the North West, including Sheffield, Liverpool and Leeds. We also help people across the whole of England and Wales, so wherever you are, we can assist you with employment law for employers matters.

We realise that running a business can often be stressful, leaving little time for dealing with the legalities of employing staff. We are here to lift this burden off your shoulders, allowing you to focus on the running of your business.

Our focus is ensuring that you receive an excellent service, which is why we take time to better understand your business from top to bottom, including your values and any requirements that you need.

Our solicitors are experts in the field, and if you enlist our help, you can be assured that you will receive quality advice so get in touch today and we would be more than happy to help.

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