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Adams and Reese Labor and Employment Partner Brent Siler was interviewed by Part B News in the article, “FTC’s Labor-Market Rule Ends Most Noncompetes for Physicians, If It Clears.” Part B News is a news information resource for the health care industry and physicians.
Siler discussed how the FTC final rule that essentially would end noncompete agreements will impact physicians from working for their competitors after they leave. Legal challenges may delay and/or alter the FTC rule, but if the rule moves forward, Siler mentioned the potential breadth of the impact.
“I don’t know that anyone at the FTC thought about some of the rabbit holes you can go down with how broad this thing is,” Siler says. “When you’re looking at terms or conditions that ‘prohibit,’ ‘penalize’ or ‘function to prevent’ the worker from accepting work again, you start getting into a lot of very fact-specific inquiries” — which could lead to litigation.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued the Non-Compete Clause Rule on April 24, calling for a comprehensive ban on non-compete agreements nationwide. The FTC concluded that non-competes are an “unfair method of competition and therefore a violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.”
Although the FTC has issued the rule, it is not effective until 120 days after publication in the Federal Register. Threats of legal challenge have already surfaced. Just hours after the 3-2 vote by the FTC to issue the final rule, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it would sue the FTC to block the rule from going into effect.
Read the Adams and Reese article on the FTC noncompete ban for more information.
At Adams and Reese, Siler is a member of the Adams and Reese Litigation Practice Group and Labor and Employment Team. He is a Partner in the Memphis office and has more than 20 years practicing at top AmLaw 200 firms across the southeastern U.S. Siler is a Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31 listed General Civil Mediator, mediating employment and commercial litigation.