“Wage-fixing” or a “no poach” agreement can get you and your company indicted.
“Wage-fixing” is never OK, and there’s no lawful workaround.
But an agreement on “no direct solicitation” may be lawful if necessary to a legitimate business deal.
Antitrust counsel can help you determine whether a “no direct solicitation” provision is OK and how to structure it.
Within the past month, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (the Division), in two separate matters, indicted a former owner of a health care staffing company for participating in a conspiracy to fix prices by lowering the rates paid to physical therapists and physical therapist assistants, and a health care company that owns and operates outpatient medical care centers across the country for agreeing with competitors not to solicit senior-level employees. (The Division’s press releases are available here and here.)
Department of Justice
Intercept on Wednesday, Jan. 13.
Biden is considering Susan Davies or Renata Hesse, among other names, for the antitrust division’s chief role. The two are decorated Silicon Valley lawyers specializing in antitrust laws who held White House and Justice Department posts before helping tech giants escape litigations.
Biden is considering the two even though anti-monopolist groups are imploring the incoming administration to appoint aggressive leaders who will reinvigorate the country’s limp antitrust enforcement. Agencies like the Antitrust Division have let Big Tech companies off the hook in many instances, leading to “a growing crisis of monopoly power” in the last decade.
Ropes & Gray Bolsters Enforcement and Antitrust Teams
Brian Blais of the Southern District of New York and Samer Musallam of the DOJ s Antitrust Division Join the Firm in New York and D.C.
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NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/
Brian Blais, co-chief of the General Crimes Unit at the United States Attorney s Office for the Southern District of New York, and
Samer Musallam, a Senior Counsel in the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, have joined Ropes & Gray as partners in the firm s global litigation & enforcement practice. Brian is based in New York and Samer in Washington, D.C.