Employee Restrictive Covenant Agreement
Cover Terms
The terms below are incorporated into and form part of this agreement.
| Employer | [Legal name of the entity that employs the employee] | ||||||||
| Employee | [Full legal name of the employee] | ||||||||
| Employee Title / Position | |||||||||
| Effective Date | [Effective date of this agreement — the date the last party signs. It anchors the duration presumptions stated in Cover Terms.] | ||||||||
| Governing Law | Iowa | ||||||||
| Confidentiality | |||||||||
| Trade Secrets Duration | Perpetual | ||||||||
| Other Confidential Information Duration | 24 months | ||||||||
| Employee Non-Solicitation | |||||||||
| Duration | 24 monthsMarket benchmark HideShow
Why this selected default?Why is this the selected default?24 months matches the modal employee non-solicit term observed in benchmarked, publicly-filed employee agreements; 12 months is the common lighter alternative. The Act sets no express duration presumption for the no-hire category, so the uniquely-essential scope limit does the primary category work; counsel should size the term to the workforce interest actually protected. Showing 3 representative examples. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing.
Showing 3 representative examples. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing.
Showing 3 representative examples. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing.
Showing 3 representative examples. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing. See all 3 examples in the complete benchmark →Showing 1 representative example. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing. See all 1 example in the complete benchmark →Showing 1 representative example. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing. See all 1 example in the complete benchmark →Showing 1 representative example. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing. See all 1 example in the complete benchmark →Showing 1 representative example. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing. See all 1 example in the complete benchmark →Showing 1 representative example. Company names link directly to the underlying SEC filing. See all 1 example in the complete benchmark → | ||||||||
| Customer Non-Solicitation | |||||||||
| Duration | 12 monthsState-law basis 12 monthsReference only — not part of this agreement. 12 months sits well inside the presumptively reasonable window for a current-customer non-solicit: eighteen months, or for as long as post-separation consideration is paid, whichever is greater. Counsel may extend toward eighteen months, or longer while post-separation consideration is paid, where the interest supports it. | ||||||||
| No Business with Covered Customers | |||||||||
| Duration | 12 monthsState-law basis 12 monthsReference only — not part of this agreement. 12 months sits within the current-customer window. Because non-dealing has no category of its own, it is drawn to fit inside the current-customer non-solicit exception, and its duration tracks that category's presumption. | ||||||||
| Non-Investment | |||||||||
| Duration | 12 months | ||||||||
| Non-Disparagement | |||||||||
| Duration | 24 months |
Standard Terms
1. Defined Terms
“Competitive Business” means the business activities described in Cover Terms under Competitive Business.
“Confidential Information” means non-public information relating to Employer's business, including trade secrets, customer lists, pricing, business processes, technical data, and strategic plans, but excluding information that becomes public through no fault of Employee.
“Covered Customers” means customers, vendors, referral sources, and business partners with whom Employee had material contact or for whom Employee had responsibility during the 12 months before termination of employment.
“Covered Employees” means employees with whom Employee worked or whom Employee managed during the 12 months before termination of employment.
“Passive Public Holdings” means ownership of securities of a publicly traded company representing less than five percent of any class of such company's securities, and interests in diversified mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded funds that may hold securities of a Competitive Business.
“Protected Interests” means Employer's Confidential Information, trade secrets, and goodwill in its customer, vendor, referral-source, and business-partner relationships, including Employee's close proximity to customers and access to information peculiar to Employer's business, but not Employer's interest in avoiding ordinary competition or the general skill and knowledge Employee acquired through experience or instruction on the job.
“Restricted Period” means the duration specified in Cover Terms for each covenant, beginning on the date Employee's employment with Employer ends for any reason.
“Restricted Territory” means the geographic area described in Cover Terms under Restricted Territory.
“Solicit” means to directly or indirectly contact, approach, induce, encourage, or provide Confidential Information to any person or entity for the purpose of diverting business away from Employer, but does not include responding to general advertisements or unsolicited inquiries not initiated by Employee.
“Trade Secrets” means information that qualifies as a trade secret under applicable law.
2. Recitals and Protectable Interests
Employer and Employee acknowledge that each restrictive covenant in this agreement protects one or more of Employer's Protected Interests, including Employer's Confidential Information, trade secrets, and customer goodwill. The covenants do not preclude Employee from using the general skill and knowledge Employee acquired on the job. Employer and Employee acknowledge that the covenants are reasonable in time, territory, and scope.
Drafting Note The three-prong reasonableness gate
Every covenant in the agreement stands or falls on Iowa's three-prong reasonableness test, and there is no general Iowa non-compete statute or statutory safe harbor to fall back on: a restraint holds only where it is reasonably necessary to protect the employer, not unreasonably restrictive of the employee, and not prejudicial to the public interest . The employer seeking enforcement carries the burden of proving reasonableness, so an acknowledgment of reasonableness written into the agreement does not carry it — each covenant clears the test only on its own record of duration, territory, and scope . Adequate consideration establishes only that the covenants are supported at formation, not that they are reasonable, and continued employment sufficient as consideration does not by itself make an unreasonable covenant enforceable. A restraint tied to named competitors and sized to the employer's actual market is the defensible one, and the gate travels with an assignment: reasonable necessity is re-weighed against a successor's own customer relationships and footprint, so a restraint sized to one employer does not automatically fit a buyer.
Drafting Note Independent-contractor covenants
An independent-contractor covenant runs the same three-prong reasonableness analysis as an employee covenant, with no lighter standard for contractor status. A restraint that requires a contractor to forsake the customers the contractor brought to the relationship is unreasonable and unenforceable , so a covenant reaching a contractor's own book of business is the exposed case.
3. Timing, Consideration, and Employee Acknowledgements
In consideration of Employee's employment or continued employment, the parties agree to the terms of this agreement. Employee acknowledges having had the opportunity to consult with independent legal counsel before signing this agreement. Employee acknowledges that the restrictions in this agreement are reasonable and necessary to protect Employer's Protected Interests. This agreement is effective as of the Effective Date listed in Cover Terms.
4. Confidential Information and Trade Secret Protection
Employee must treat all Confidential Information as strictly confidential. Employee must not use or disclose Confidential Information except as required to perform authorized job duties or with Employer's prior written consent. Employee's obligations regarding trade secrets continue in perpetuity, for as long as the information remains a trade secret. Employee's obligations regarding other Confidential Information continue for the period specified in Cover Terms. This confidentiality obligation is intended to operate alongside, and independent of, any restrictive covenant, and does not restrict Employee's use of the general knowledge, skill, and experience Employee acquired through experience or instruction during employment.
Drafting Note Secrecy protection
A non-compete is not the only route to protecting secrecy, and often not the strongest. Where the real concern is confidential information, targeted NDA, invention-assignment, and trade-secret provisions carry their own protection: chapter 550 supplies an injunction against actual or threatened misappropriation independent of any covenant , damages for actual loss and unjust enrichment , and attorney fees where a claim is made in bad faith, an injunction-termination motion is made or resisted in bad faith, or misappropriation is willful and malicious — each available only where the information meets the statutory definition of a trade secret and reasonable secrecy efforts can be proved . Return, deletion, and certification of employer property are part of those reasonable secrecy efforts. Because chapter 550 does not preempt every tort theory involving trade secrets, a common-law claim can run alongside the statutory one .
5. Permitted Disclosures and Protected Conduct
Nothing in this agreement prohibits Employee from: (a) reporting possible violations of law to any government agency, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or any other federal, state, or local agency; (b) making disclosures protected under whistleblower provisions of any law; (c) discussing wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employment as protected by applicable law, including Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. § 157); (d) testifying truthfully in legal proceedings; or (e) filing a sealed complaint in court using Confidential Information without liability. Pursuant to the Defend Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. § 1833(b)), Employee may not be held criminally or civilly liable for disclosing a trade secret in confidence to a government official or attorney solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law, or in a sealed court filing.
6. Return, Deletion, and Certification of Company Property
Upon termination of employment, Employee must promptly return to Employer all documents, devices, files, credentials, and other materials containing or relating to Confidential Information. Where permitted, Employee must permanently delete electronic copies of Confidential Information from personal devices and accounts. Employee must certify compliance with this section in writing upon Employer's request.
7. Non-Solicitation of Employees
During the Restricted Period, Employee must not Solicit, recruit, hire, or attempt to hire any Covered Employee. This restriction does not prohibit Employee from providing a professional reference upon request or from hiring a person who responds to a general advertisement not directed specifically at Employer's employees.
8. Non-Solicitation of Customers, Vendors, Referral Sources, and Business Partners
During the Restricted Period, Employee must not Solicit the business of any Covered Customer. Where Employee is a licensed mental health professional, this covenant does not restrict Employee from contacting for professional services a person Employee previously treated.
Drafting Note Customer restrictions sized to actual relationships
A customer non-solicit maps directly onto the employer's customer-goodwill interest — customer proximity is among the first factors Iowa weighs — and, backstopped by confidentiality and trade-secret protection, is often a stronger and more readily enforceable protection than a broad non-compete. A no-business-with-covered-customers clause reaches even customer-initiated business, so it presses harder on the reasonableness inquiry into whether a restraint sweeps in more activity than protection requires and deprives the customer of its chosen provider. Iowa trims such a restraint to the activities and territory the worker actually served , so a customer restriction survives only where it is sized tightly to the goodwill it protects and confined to customers the worker actually had material contact with; stretched beyond that, it is the exposed case.
9. No Business with Covered Customers
During the Restricted Period, Employee must not accept, service, or do business with any Covered Customer, regardless of whether Employee or the Covered Customer first initiated contact.
10. Non-Investment
During the Restricted Period, Employee must not acquire or hold any active ownership interest in, serve as a director, officer, manager, or advisor to, or have material economic participation in any Competitive Business. Passive Public Holdings are permitted.
11. Non-Disparagement
During the Restricted Period specified in Cover Terms for Non-Disparagement, Employee must not make statements that are intended to or reasonably likely to disparage Employer, its officers, directors, employees, products, or services. This section does not restrict Employee from making truthful statements in legal proceedings, providing truthful testimony, making disclosures to government agencies, or exercising rights protected by law, including rights protected under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act.
12. Occupation- and Sector-Specific Rights and Notices
If Employee is a licensed mental health professional, this agreement does not limit the location at which Employee may practice, prohibit Employee from contacting for professional services a person Employee previously treated, or impose a time restriction on Employee's practice. If Employer is a health-care employment agency and Employee is an agency worker, this agreement does not restrict Employee's employment opportunities or require Employee to pay liquidated damages, employment fees, or other compensation if Employee is later hired by a health care entity. If Employer is the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Employee is an advanced registered nurse practitioner, licensed practical nurse, pharmacist, physician, physician assistant, or registered nurse, the non-competition covenant does not apply.
13. No Conflicting Obligations
Employee represents that performing duties for Employer and complying with this agreement does not conflict with any prior agreement, court order, or legal obligation binding on Employee. Employee must promptly disclose to Employer any potential conflict that arises during employment.
14. Notice to Future Employers and Other Third Parties
Employer may disclose the existence and terms of this agreement to any prospective employer or business associate of Employee if Employer has a reasonable belief that Employee may breach this agreement. Employee consents to this disclosure.
Drafting Note Notice letters resting on an overbroad covenant
A notice to a departing employee's prospective employer is only as sound as the covenant it invokes. A covenant an Iowa court would narrow to the activities, territory, and duration the worker actually handled , or one an occupation statute voids outright, gives the notice little to rest on and can expose the employer to a claim for interfering with the new employment. The notice that holds is built on a restraint the employer is prepared to defend on all three reasonableness prongs.
15. Tolling During Breach
If Employee breaches any restrictive covenant in this agreement, the parties intend that the Restricted Period for that covenant be extended by one day for each day of the breach, so that the full duration of the restriction runs from the date the breach ends.
Drafting Note Tolling
Tolling is an open question in Iowa: no controlling appellate authority decides whether a non-compete period tolls during breach or enforcement litigation, and the closest doctrine is reformation, which reshapes an overbroad covenant to a reasonable scope rather than adding time back . Iowa's leading application set a fixed period measured from the date employment terminated, not an extension for breach or litigation delay . An extension-on-breach clause is itself a longer restraint, so it stands or falls as part of the covenant's duration under the same reasonableness test; an open-ended or indefinite extension, or one that assumes a court will revive an expired covenant, is the exposed case.
16. Remedies
Employee acknowledges that a breach of this agreement may cause Employer irreparable harm for which money damages would be inadequate. Employer may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in addition to any other remedies available at law.
17. Enforceability and Severability
If any provision of this agreement is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.
18. Survival and Expiration of Each Covenant
Each restrictive covenant in this agreement survives the termination of Employee's employment for the Restricted Period specified in Cover Terms. Obligations under the Confidential Information and Trade Secret Protection section survive for the Trade Secrets Duration specified in Cover Terms to the extent they relate to trade secrets, and for the Other Confidential Information Duration specified in Cover Terms for other Confidential Information. All other provisions survive to the extent necessary to enforce rights that arose during employment.
19. Assignment and Successors
Employee may not assign this agreement or any rights or obligations under it. Employer may assign this agreement to any affiliate, successor, or acquirer of all or substantially all of Employer's business or assets. This agreement is binding on and inures to the benefit of the parties and their respective heirs, successors, and permitted assigns.
20. Governing Law, Venue, and Dispute Process
This agreement is governed by the law listed in Cover Terms. Disputes will be resolved in the courts of the Governing Law state, subject to non-waivable rights under applicable law. The parties intend that the governing-law and venue choices match where Employee actually lives and works.
21. Entire Agreement, Amendment, Waiver, and Electronic Signatures
This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties regarding its subject matter and supersedes all prior agreements, understandings, and negotiations on this subject. This agreement may be amended only in writing signed by both parties. A party's failure to enforce any provision does not waive that party's right to enforce it later. This agreement may be executed in counterparts, including by electronic signature, each of which is an original.
Signatures
By signing this agreement, each party acknowledges and agrees to the restrictive covenant obligations above. Employee confirms having read and understood each provision, including the Cover Terms.
Employer
Employer: [Legal name of the entity that employs the employee]
Signature:
Signatory Name: [Full name of the authorized signatory signing for the employer]
Title: [Title of the authorized signatory signing for the employer]
Date:
Employee
Signature:
Print Name: [Full legal name of the employee]
Date: