Hiring Associates and Practice Managers -
Is There a Catch?...

It is common practice in the Veterinary field to create a contract upon hiring an Associate or a Practice Manager. This contract explains the expectations of the practice regarding basic duties of the employee and the wages and benefits the employee will receive. It also should include a confidentiality clause to protect the practice from the employee divulging information about the practice's clients or finances or any other confidential or proprietary information from the practice. The contract, if state laws allow, also includes a non-compete agreement to protect the practice from a former employee owning, managing or being employed by another veterinary clinic within a specific distance of the clinic for a specified length of time.

When you hire a new Associate or Practice Manager, have you considered that this person may be coming to your practice with restrictions from a hiring agreement that was signed with his prior employer? Most employees enter into these agreements without much thought and they may come to work for you without considering that they have a legal obligation that restricts them from working for you. So, what can you do to protect yourself from problems later on after you have hired the person?

If you are hiring an Associate or Practice Manager who previously worked at a practice in your city, they may be unaware that they have a non-compete agreement. They may have signed something when they began work but are unaware that this is a clause within the contract. Ask them to find all contracts/agreements that they signed with their former employer and bring those to review to ensure that there are no restrictions. If the prospective employee provides you with any type of signed agreement, you may want your attorney to review the document to make a determination as to whether there will be any problems if you hire this person.

The restrictions that your attorney will review are the same ones that you have put into contracts yourself. These include the length of time that the non-compete is in effect and the distance from the former employer's place of business that the non-compete covers.

Even if distance and time are not the issue, there is the issue of confidentiality. The new employee, especially if he is an Associate, may want to bring some of his or her clients to your practice. The prospective employee may not provide you with the names of past clients nor can he or she take a list from the former employer and contact them personally. This is all proprietary information of the clinic and protected in the confidentiality agreement. Even if there is not a confidentiality agreement, you risk a court agreeing with the former practice that this information was the property of the practice.

It is not just the employee who runs a risk of a lawsuit by breaking a non-compete or confidentiality agreement. There can be an assumption that you should have known these restrictions might exist. Protect yourself and your practice. If you are considering hiring someone who previously worked for a clinic near your practice, be sure to do your homework.