Employment Agreements: Key Legal, Drafting, and Negotiation Issues (Pro-Employer)


Summary

This practice note addresses the purposes for entering into employment agreements, the essential components of an effective employment agreement, practical drafting suggestions, and some drafting and negotiating pitfalls that you may encounter. Absent an agreement to the contrary, the law generally presumes that employment relationships are at-will, that is, that the employer and the employee can terminate employment at any time for any reason or no reason. Accordingly, while at-will statements in offer letters and employment agreements can help to eliminate any ambiguities regarding the employee's at-will employment status, detailed employment agreements often are unnecessary for many employees.