We often write about developments in the area of noncompete law, primarily case law and statutory developments across the country in this highly state-specific area. This year will likely be no different – among other things, the seemingly annual ritual of Massachusetts noncompete legislation has begun anew. While the rules shift and evolve, when employers and employees find themselves in disputes over noncompetes, there are recurring themes or factors that might have been avoided.

This article we wrote reviews these factors, broken down by the three actors present in virtually every noncompete dispute:

• The employee who signed the agreement

• The employee’s former employer who holds the noncompete and seeks to enforce restrictions

• The new employer who seeks to employ the employee in some capacity

For example, we often find that an employee signed the agreement without talking to a lawyer and, as a result, did not fully understand the potential ramifications of the agreement. That misunderstanding manifests itself when the employee moves without full awareness of possible restrictions on his/her activities.