Schneider Smeltz Spieth Bell LLP (SSSB) successfully represented a privately held medical practice seeking to enforce non-compete and non-solicitation provisions against a former physician-employee. The former physician left the client's employ to establish their own competing medical practice, all the while actively soliciting former employees, patients, and vendors. SSSB’s attorneys were able to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the former employee had signed an enforceable employment agreement and that the covenants governing competition were reasonable and aimed to prevent unfair competition.
Utilizing the extensive resources available to SSSB, and following a five-day preliminary injunction hearing, where nearly a dozen witnesses testified, SSSB successfully argued that the former physician-employee should be restrained from competing within a 10-mile radius for one year and from soliciting former patients and employees of the private medical practice for a period of two years. The 23-page opinion reaffirms that under Ohio law, a one-year physician non-compete remains reasonable.
Leading the legal team in this case included SSSB Partners, Aanchal Sharma and Mark M. Mikhaiel, and Associate, Nick M. Vento, all of whom demonstrated an unwavering commitment to uphold the contractual terms and an unyielding dedication to their client.
This ruling has the potential to change the way the public views the enforceability of physician non-compete agreements inasmuch as the ruling indicates that physicians, like other non-medical employees, are held to the long-standing notion that a “deal is a deal.”
