Publication Date
4-2024
Document Type
Comment
Abstract
This Comment discusses potential employer solutions to the intersectional challenges of balancing trade secret protection and employee retention in a post-COVID-19 remote employment market. First, this Comment provides an overview of the FTC’s proposed rule to ban non-competes, as well as the political context and history behind the FTC’s enhanced focus on policing anti-competitive business behaviors. Additionally, this Comment explains the utility behind non-competes and contextualizes the ban’s potential effects through a legal survey of non-compete enforceability in the U.S. To illustrate the steep challenge of trade secret protection in the modern employment market, this Comment separately analyzes the rise of post-COVID-19 remote work and the unique challenges that remote work raises for trade secret protection and remote employee retention. Finally, this Comment offers potential solutions to the intersectional challenges of remote work trade secret protection under a potential non-compete ban by (1) discussing the benefits of pre-Industrial Revolution apprenticeship models and (2)advocating for employers to use ongoing professional development and holistic mentorship to enhance employee retention and trade secret protection.
Recommended Citation
Pfeifer, Kayla Lya
(2024)
"Don’t Lose the Remote: An Employer’s Guide to Remote Employee and Trade Secret Retention Without Non-Competes,"
Mercer Law Review: Vol. 75:
No.
3, Article 8.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/jour_mlr/vol75/iss3/8