Non-Compete Clause

[girgaum]

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Maryland

I am an IT professional working for a lage corporation for 10+ years. I believe that I have signed a non-compee agreement when I joined, unfortunately I don't have a copy of the agreement.

I have been working at a client site as programmer. The client has advertised for a employment position. This position is not open for any kind of contracting bids.

I have following quiestions:

1. Can a non-compete agreement signed 10 years ago bar me from applying?

2. If I apply and get the job, is the non-compete agreement applicable? Mainly because the position is not open for any kind of bidding and it does not relate to the job I doing right now.

[cbg]

1.) Unless it had a clause stating that it was void after x amount of time, of course it can. They don't have expiration dates.

2.) We have not read the agreement so we cannot determine under what circumstances it is and is not enforceable. Show it to an attorney in your state.

[hr for me]

Also you need to pay attention to any clause that speaks directly to working for a current client of the consulting firm, rather than a general NCA that talks about a certain distance or time period. Many times they will add that in also. And it can be more enforceable than the general provision if there are other places of employment within the area.

There is also a chance that the client had to sign a different agreement that stated they would not "hire away" any consultants that came from the consulting firm. This is especially true in the IT arena.

I agree with CBG that the best thing you can do is to take the agreement to a local employment attorney.

{DH successfully negotiated his way out of both agreements going from an IT consulting firm to a client, but the client company paid (1) a recruiting fee of about 3 months salary to the consulting firm and (2) guaranteed $xxxK in billable work over the next y months. And it took 3-4 months of negotiation to get there. So another question would the client company fight that hard to get you?}

[girgaum]

Thank you very much for the responses. Now, I have a task of getting a copy of the agreement.