Multinational employers often negotiate, with their key employees, employment agreements and restrictive covenants that prohibit unfair competition across borders. To prevent inconsistent judgments and give the parties a firmer expectation regarding their rights, many employers negotiate choice-of-law and choice-of-forum provisions that select one jurisdiction's laws or forum over another's.

The enforceability of these provisions in the United States was recently affirmed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Martinez v. Bloomberg LP, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113227 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 10, 2012). This decision holds important lessons for multinational employers concerning the enforceability and limitations of these clauses.

To learn more about the decisions and its potential implications for employers, please continue reading Littler's ASAP, New Decision Highlights the Importance of Forum Selection Clauses in Cross-Border Employment Agreements, by Philip Berkowitz, Laurent Badoux, and Trent Sutton.