Law360 to stop requiring journalists sign noncompete

Law360 will stop requiring new hires to sign noncompete agreements under a settlement between the legal publication and New York authorities, reports Aruna Viswanatha of The Wall Street Journal.

Viswanatha wrties, “Law360, a LexisNexis Group unit that publishes online newsletters covering court cases and other legal news, said it “voluntarily collaborated with the New York attorney general’s office and reached a mutual agreement regarding the best possible outcome” for its employees.

“Under the settlement, in which the New York-based publisher neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing, Law360 will no longer require editorial employees to sign noncompete deals, and will notify current and former employees who left within the past year that the one-year waiting period the deals impose are no longer in effect.

“Stephanie Russell-Kraft, a former reporter who lost a job with a new employer because of the noncompete agreement she signed with Law360, said she hadn’t yet found another full-time position, but is encouraged to hear the company has stopped requiring the commitments.”

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