I work in California and hired a lawyer to nullify a non-compete clause. The company backed off when my lawyer cited case law that basically says if a company attempts to clamp down on a skill you had pre-existing to employment, ALL previous contracts become null and void. California views this kind of corporate behavior as a form of enslavement.

Quite reasonable given California's history, as "You'll never work in this town again" is a threat with some very real weight behind it for the Tinseltown population.

That particular case isn't helped by labor laws, as the threat isn't enforced legally. They put your name on a blacklist and all of a sudden you find that nobody will hire you. I don't know the specific provenance of that legal precedent, but I doubt it had anything to do with Hollywood.

Generally, but not in all cases. IANAL, but if you are an officer or key employee of a company that's acquired, the acquirer can enforce non-competes because it affects the value of the acquisition. There's a specific section of the California employment code that talks about this, but I don't have it handy right now.

Business and Professions Code 16600 http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=bpc&gr...

Thank you!

I was going to give another "not a lawyer but" reply, since I had heard that the only conditions in which a non-compete could be legal in California was if the owner of the business was selling his stake along with his own good-will, and then could be barred from competing as part of the terms of the agreement of sale.

But at a glance that's only 16601 from the page you linked, the page goes on for another 6 whole sections of code after that. So, there are more ways it can be legal in CA.