Ken Griffin’s Citadel is placing its Florida lobbying muscle behind an effort to permit four-year non-compete clauses and backyard leaves in its dwelling state, tightening employers’ maintain on well-paid staffers and executives contemplating defection.

The invoice has cruised via the legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature, with supporters saying it should make the state extra interesting to firms liable to shedding an edge if key staff leap to rivals.

The measure permits four-year restrictions in contracts with folks incomes at the very least double the common native wage — usually greater than $140,000 in city areas. It additionally accelerates courtroom orders blocking defectors from performing comparable work elsewhere or barring opponents from hiring them.

Griffin’s lobbyists helped form the invoice’s language and have advocated for it alongside broader enterprise teams together with the Related Industries of Florida, which supported it in legislative hearings, in accordance with folks with direct information of the hassle, who requested to not be named discussing nonpublic talks. The measure isn’t restricted to the monetary trade.

A spokesperson for Citadel declined to remark. A consultant for the AIF, which doesn’t disclose its members, didn’t reply to a message in search of remark.

“It’s extraordinarily pleasant towards employers,” stated James Valentino, an employment lawyer with Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder. “Florida is understood for that, however this takes it to a distinct degree.”

It’s the most recent present of the billionaire investor’s affect in his new dwelling state, the place he has made himself the de-facto chief of Wall Avenue South. Since Griffin, 56, moved Citadel’s headquarters to Miami from Chicago a number of years in the past, he has formed native politics and coverage via lobbying and thousands and thousands of {dollars} in political donations.

For backers, the invoice is an try to make sure a good state-level resolution for employers in what’s change into a scorching matter in labor regulation after the Federal Commerce Fee tried to bar many non-compete agreements final 12 months. The FTC ban was halted in courtroom, however the company is interesting. In the meantime, dozens of states have adopted the company’s lead, floating legal guidelines to rein in non-competes.

Expertise Wars

On the identical time, cash managers, flocking to Florida in recent times, are dealing with extreme stress to go off defections amid their unrelenting combat over expertise. Hedge funds try to stop staff from being lured away by rivals dangling upfront bonuses and buyouts on deferred compensation — typically paired with non-competes or bonus clawbacks to make sure they keep of their subsequent job.

Citadel has extended non-compete clauses for some portfolio managers to 21 months, Bloomberg reported in January. The restrictions had averaged one 12 months in 2020, although some managers needed to sit out so long as 18 months to get their deferred compensation.

Citadel Securities, Griffin’s separate market-making enterprise, can also be suing two former London-based staff for trade-secret theft after they give up and began their very own crypto-trading enterprise.

A part of Citadel’s function within the invoice is mirrored in records obtained by Searching for Rents, an area watchdog publication. The paperwork present Griffin’s lobbyists despatched a draft of the laws to a state consultant’s workplace, affirming that she had agreed to sponsor it. One other e mail reveals Citadel and its lobbyists sought a gathering with the invoice’s sponsor on the Senate facet.

The measure would permit four-year non-competes that bar staff from doing work at a brand new employer much like their job within the earlier three years, or from utilizing any data they gleaned. Former staff is also barred from becoming a member of firms or beginning companies in an identical subject.

Backyard Depart

Alternatively, throughout a backyard depart, employers would proceed to pay salaries and advantages to departing employees, primarily sidelining them from the sector. The businesses wouldn’t must pay bonuses, which at hedge funds could make up the lion’s share of annual compensation and probably stretch into the thousands and thousands of {dollars}.

In both case, the invoice requires firms to inform staff they’ve the appropriate to hunt authorized recommendation earlier than the clauses take impact.

Non-competes are already allowed in Florida, however the rules aren’t as clear, giving judges leeway to interpret whether or not the time period and scope of clauses are affordable. For jilted employers, making that case can pressure them to publicly reveal delicate details about their operations.

And in follow, courts could permit former staff to proceed their new work till the ultimate ruling. The invoice, alternatively, would require courts to concern a preliminary injunction when the case is filed.

“The burden of proof is shifted,” stated Sam Peak, the labor and mobility coverage supervisor on the Financial Innovation Group, a Washington assume tank. “It sways the deck in favor of the incumbent employer.”

‘Whose Bidding?’

Home sponsor Traci Koster has referred to as Florida’s present legal guidelines on non-competes “inadequate” in defending employers with delicate enterprise data. “It helps cement the state’s popularity as a lovely location to conduct enterprise,” stated Senator Tom Leek, one other sponsor. Each are Republican.

“Inform me this isn’t a invoice only for a billionaire hedge fund man named Ken Griffin?” Senator Jason Pizzo, an impartial, requested throughout a committee assembly. “Whose bidding are we doing right here?” Leek responded that they have been “doing all of the stakeholders’ bidding.”

Koster and Leek didn’t reply to requests for remark, nor did Governor Ron DeSantis’s workplace.

Even when backyard leaves assist departing staff maintain their lights on, restrictions can harm careers, stopping folks from rising into new roles outdoors their present firms, stated Valentino, the employment lawyer.

“It may be an enormous detriment that limits your marketability down the street,” he stated. “You’re being requested to take a seat out for a extremely lengthy interval.”

Photograph: Miami’s monetary district. (Saul Martinez/Bloomberg)

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

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