Employment Contract Drafting

Service description

Create, review, and negotiate legally sound and enforceable employment arrangements that comply with relevant state and federal laws.

Common industries

Any employer hiring, especially where trade secrets or client relationships are at stake.

ROI

Well-drafted contracts prevent disputes, protect company IP, and reduce the risk and cost of wrongful-termination or ownership claims.

Benefit

Clear, enforceable employment agreements — compensation, IP ownership, confidentiality, and restrictive covenants — tailored to your state's law.

Why get it

State law, not federal law, sets how far a non-compete or confidentiality clause can go, and courts read this document literally, so the specific wording — not just the general intent — decides what's actually enforceable if a dispute happens.

When you benefit

Drafted once per role or template, then reused for each new hire until the terms need updating.

What it costs

Usually a flat fee per template, lower for reusing an existing one.

When you pay

Typically billed once at delivery of the template or the individual agreement; updating an existing template for a law change or a new state is usually billed separately as a smaller fixed fee.

Other costs

None beyond the fee itself, unless the business wants separate state-specific versions of the same template.

Risks to know

An overbroad restrictive covenant can be struck down entirely rather than narrowed, leaving the business with no protection at all in states that don't let courts rewrite an unenforceable clause. A confidentiality clause that isn't written to comply with federal whistleblower and harassment-disclosure protections can also be unenforceable where it matters most.

When risks arise

An unenforceable clause usually isn't discovered until it's tested — when an employee leaves and the business tries to enforce it — by which point rewriting the agreement is no longer an option.

The process

The provider drafts the agreement or template from the business's terms, tailored to the employee's state, and reviews it with the business before it's sent to the employee for signature. Templates are kept on file and reused for the same role, with a periodic check that state law hasn't changed.

Your commitment

The business specifies the role's compensation, confidentiality needs, and whether it wants a non-compete, non-solicit, or IP-assignment clause, and in which state the employee will work. It should flag any trade secrets or client relationships the role will have access to, since that shapes how the restrictive covenants are written.

Documents to gather

• Job description, compensation structure, and the state where the employee will work
• Any existing template for the role, if updating rather than drafting new
• List of trade secrets, client relationships, or IP the role will have access to

Helpful reading

• Preventing Harassment in Light of the Speak Out Act — SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management)
• noncompete — Cornell Law School, Legal Information Institute (Wex)

Further research

• 18 U.S. Code § 1836 — Civil remedies for trade secret misappropriation (Defend Trade Secrets Act)
• 42 U.S. Code § 19403 — Limits on pre-dispute nondisclosure and nondisparagement clauses in sexual assault and harassment disputes (Speak Out Act)
• 42 U.S. Code § 2000e-2 — Unlawful employment practices (Title VII)
• 29 U.S. Code § 203 — Definitions of "employee" and "employ" under the Fair Labor Standards Act