Opinion: The Texas Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Alex Sheshnoff Management Services, LP v. Johnson continues the trend of cases favoring employers in Texas. Now, covenants not to compete, assuming applicable statutory criteria for reasonableness are met, are enforceable even though the employee is not provided confidential information until well after employment begins.
Departure: This departs from earlier appellate decisions that required the employer to provide the confidential information to the employee at virtually the time of employment for a covenant not to compete to be enforceable.
Impact: The impact of this decision on the business community is that a common challenge to the enforceability of covenants not to compete has been eliminated.
Please e-mail John Havins with questions or comments.