On the other hand, you as an attorney are so concerned with avoiding any liability you refrain from giving any useful advice whatsoever. I am willing to take a risk, you avoid it like the plague. Which is a better way to go through life?
Your company is right to be pissed, they’re not headhunters, they don’t get paid to provide clients with prospective employees. You were sent to fill in until they found someone. Now the client doesn’t have to spend any money to fill the position, and your company has to pick up that tab and hassle. I would never send one of my workers to fill in for someone if I thought they’d be stolen from me, hiring costs a lot of money.
You didn’t do anything wrong, but it’s entirely possible that you will not wind up with this new position. Even if they can’t legally prevent you from switching jobs, or force you to work for them, they don’t have to maintain their relationship with the client if the client poaches employees. If the client values the relationship, they may be persuaded to retract the offer.
Do you understand that there may be an agreement between her old employer and her new one that forbids NE from hiring OE’s staff?
What is your legal opinion on the enforceability of that contract?
You’re in CA, right? Not a licensed attorney? You should probably review this:
http://da.co.la.ca.us/pdf/UPLpublic.pdf#search="california%20unauthorized%20practice%20of%20law"
YOU’RE willing to take a risk that someone else might suffer from your advice? Big of you.
Nope. I was, but not now. You were saying?
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client. But I would opine that the employer has a case against the client. But that is not the employee’s problem.
Nope. Just offering an opinion, and saying what I would do. Apparently those employed in the legal profession find that threatening.
I was saying you should consult your jurisdiction’s rules on on the unauthorized practice of law. You mentioned CA, so I did you the courtesy of looking up the law in that state. While you are at it, **Bunny ** is in New York. You ought to take a gander at New York’s unauthorized practice rules, too. I’m not really interested in discussing your opinions about whether you are violating any unauthorized practice rules, this being GQ and all. I’m just saying you should take a look. Or better yet, talk to an attorney licensed in the relevant jurisdiction.
Given that the risk here entails the possibility of being sued and the possibility of giving bad advice, I’d say avoiding this kind of risk is a much better way of going through life.
Are you sure that a non-compete isn’t enforceable because I’ve seen them used too many times to think that.
True, but what are the odds of the employee getting dragged into this. Say old employer decides to sue client. They could very well drag her into this as an additional defendant. Would you be surprised if they make allegations of some breach of the duty of loyalty?
Note, I am not saying that anyone will be sued over this. The CPA firm probably won´t want to sue a client since it tends to be bad for business.
I am not your lawyer, you are not my client, I am not licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction. I do not practice Employment Law and I don´t find it to be a particular area that I would like to practice in. The above post is for entertainment purposes only and should be taken for what it is, pure speculation on a public forum.
Is this legal advice? Are you my lawyer; am I your client?
They are almost universally unenforceable in California. In some states, the restrictions are so narrow, employers have a hard time getting a court to uphold them. This does not prevent employers from trying to scare employees from accepting a better offer from a competitor. I would be interested to know what state the OP is in.
Cite? 
That is EXACTLY the employee’s problem. If the client knows that the employer might have a case against them, then the client may well chose not to hire the employee, making it a big problem for the the employee.
They are already paying our firm’s HR consultant affiliate to find someone for the position.
This is exactly what I’m afraid of.
I am a Paraprofessional Accountant, which is basically someone with a 2-year degree doing the work of a Staff Accountant.
The solution, therefore, is for Bunny to ask for a contract from his new employer.
Or, am I off base?
I am not a lawyer, I am an HR person. There is a difference between a competitor and a client. Thus, a noncompete is unlikely to be the relevant document.
It is probable that the client has an anti-poaching clause in something they signed with your employer. These clauses can usually, but not always, be addressed by money. After all, it’s not that your firm doesn’t want to provide labor to clients, it’s that it doesn’t want to provide FREE labor to clients. If you are worth what the client is willing to pay your firm’s HR Consulting group, then things should probably work out on a firm-to-firm basis.
You direct supervisor, however, does kind of get screwed in the deal, if it does go through. However, ultimately making clients happy (for a price) is his job.
My advice is to find out everyone’s relevant T’s and C’s, keep emotion out of it (probably hard given your financial situation, but important), and regardless of the outcome make sure both your employer and the client see you as the consummate professional throughout. Good luck!
The client is paying our firm $55 per hour for my services right now. I’ll continue going over there on afternoons during the two week notice, after that, I’ll be their employee.
My direct supervisor, after I gave her a calming down period, cried when we talked about it more. She doesn’t want to lose me. She’s a new manager, so she hasn’t learned to keep emotions out of the picture. I feel even worse. I think some of the emotion is that it’s way more stress on her. I was her “go-to” person. She gave me a job yesterday and said, “You’re the only person I trust with this.”
What makes this situation a little stickier is that the guy that hired me is good friends with one of the guys in my department. He said he had a feeling that he was going to offer me the job, just based on what he was saying about me.
In the interview, I asked if there would be any “bad blood” between the two firms and he said, “No, we pay them too much money every year for there to be bad blood.” Perhaps he spoke too soon.
My advice is to find out everyone’s relevant T’s and C’s, keep emotion out of it (probably hard given your financial situation, but important), and regardless of the outcome make sure both your employer and the client see you as the consummate professional throughout. Good luck!
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I like this part best:
Gfactor, I also left out the part where I’m paid nowhere near what a Staff Accountant would be paid.
Although, there was talk of my raise coming up that would have put me in the range I’ll be making at the new job. I could also work modified tax season hours so I could be home in the evenings and just work the extra hours on Saturday, but that offer was not officially on the table. :dubious:
So, I’ve just now signed the offer letter and I’m leaving in a few minutes to hand it over to my (hopefully) new employer. I’ll see if the shit hit the fan over there after they talked to my current employer.