If I open a business as a 49% owner and my current employment contract has a stipulation that prohibits me from recruiting from their company for a 2 years, can my partners do such recruiting?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
If I open a business as a 49% owner and my current employment contract has a stipulation that prohibits me from recruiting from their company for a 2 years, can my partners do such recruiting?
If I personally didn’t recruit but my partners do, is that OK?
Asked on March 23, 2015 under Employment Labor Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
Contracts are, in theory, enforced as written. In theory, if the contract only applies to you and to business/entities controlled by you, then the business (which as 49% owner you do not control) and your partners could recruit. But that is a *very* narrow interpretation, one which a court might not choose to take; rather, if there was litigation (a lawsuit) over this brought by your current employer, a court could feel that since you almost certainly or necessarily took part in the recruiting--for example, told your partners who would make a good recruit and not, helping them target prospects--that *you* still did the recruiting, even if you hid behind others. It would be very risky to do this--there are many good candidates out there for any job (my wife is in HR; finding qualified candidates is not, she tells me, the problem), so you should recruit elsewhere. After all, even if you were to win a lawsuit from your current employer, they could certainly at least bring such a lawsuit in this case, forcing you, your partners, and your business to spend time and money defending yourselves.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.