Five Ward and Smith attorneys provided updates related to employment law, including non-compete agreements, unionization efforts, pregnancy laws, and overtime rules for exempt employees, during the firm’s recent In-House Counsel Seminar.

In a fast-paced session, the attorneys discussed key employment law changes, including:

• New employer guidelines for religious accommodations
• The validity of non-compete agreements
• Guidelines for accommodating pregnant workers
• New standards from the NLRB on workplace policies
• Changes for determining joint-employer status

Non-Competes and Non-Disclosures

Avery Locklear, a labor and employment attorney, offered guidance on a proposed rule from the Federal Trade Commission regarding non-compete agreements: “Employers need to be proactive, and one way to do that is to review existing non-compete agreements to ensure they’re not overly broad.”

Recruiting and retaining the right people is essential for driving an organization forward, and that is partially why these agreements are a hot-button issue. “There has been a lot of debate about this since it was proposed by the FTC, but non-compete agreements are still valid,” noted Locklear.

Under the proposal, which Locklear expects will not be finalized until April of 2024 at the earliest, employers would be prohibited from entering into non-compete agreements with workers, a term encompassing independent contractors, interns and externs. Notifying workers that existing non-compete agreements are...

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