In this week’s Freedom Friday blog and email newsletter, we’re continuing our new year series, “Top Six in 2026,” and we’re talking about the six most popular topics from last year’s Freedom Friday blog and email newsletter. Surprisingly, based on our statistics, this one placed at #5, and its actually from late 2024, but it did not make the “Top Five in 2025” that we did a year ago. Occasionally I will have a client or a prospective client ask me, “Here’s a non-compete agreement I want my employee or independent contractor to sign. What do you think?” Unfortunately, that client or prospective client is asking the wrong question. However, in today’s Freedom Friday blog and email newsletter, I’m answering the question they should be asking, “Are Non-Compete Agreements Allowed in Oklahoma?”
The short answer is no, non-compete agreements are not allowed under Oklahoma law. Section 217 of Title 15 of Oklahoma statutes expressly prohibits any contract by which any one is restrained from exercising a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind, with some specific exceptions, is to that extent void. The two statutory exceptions are for a contract for sale of the goodwill of the business (Section 218), and in the case of a partnership dissolution (or a “business divorce,” or dissolution of LLC) (Section 219). However, non-solicitation agreements are allowed under Oklahoma law (Sections 219A and 219B).
If you can’t have an employee or independent contractor sign a non-compete agreement under Oklahoma law, what are the alternatives? First, focus on protecting your customer relationships. Some good practices for your small business should include requiring your employees, especially sales representatives, to communicate with customers on employer-owned devices; making sure that multiple employees have relationships with every customer (the team approach); if an employee leaves your company, another employee immediately reaching out to the former employee’s customers, explaining the situation, and keeping the relationship; maintaining a tracking system and records of communicating with customers, so if an employee leaves, your business can understand the nature and history of the relationship; and when allowed, requiring employees and independent contractors to sign appropriate non-solicitation agreements.
Second, you should also focus on protecting confidential information and trade secrets. Good practices in this area should include clearly defining what information is confidential; training employees and independent contractors on your company’s policies and procedures regarding confidential information; requiring employees and independent contractors to sign a confidentiality agreement separate from any other agreement; limiting access of confidential information to only those employees and independent contractors who need to know it; prohibiting the spread of confidential information outside employer-owned systems; requiring employees to only communicate internally on employer-owned devices; conducting exit interviews to discuss access to confidential information (when an employee or independent contractor leaves, the duty to maintain confidential information remains); and discouraging employees and independent contractors to communicate with customers via social media such as LinkedIn (and policies on how they can do so if they choose to communicate in this manner).
Thinking about starting a small business? Or maybe your small business is having issues with contracts, leases, business partners, collection issues, or experiencing other barriers to growth? Please contact me at Jonathan@libertylegalok.com to schedule a FREE strategy session.
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