Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

On November 3, 2007, there was a talk in San Francisco on developing areas in employment law.

California has a public policy to allow people to move around. 

However, non-solicitation provisions are enforceable, but they may not limit the solicitation of customers.  Non-solicitation of customers whose information may be gathered from public sources might be a hidden non-competition provision. 

Non-solicitation does not occur when:  A former co-worker who approaches someone at his/her new employer and then moves over to the person’s new employer is not considered to be solicitation by the former employer because he/she was approached by the co-worker, not the person reaching out to the co-worker.  It may difficult to prove who asked who in such a situation, but if there is a case, the person involved may need to testify under penalty of perjury.  If a person testifies under penalty of perjury and lies, it would be considered a crime.  In order to prevent from committing a crime, the person could plea the 5^th Amendment if he/she does not want to answer a question.