As a rule, when an employee leaves a company, especially if the employee has been with an employer for an extended period of time, it is considered to be crucial to have a detailed agreement settling the rights of the employee and employer. Such severance agreements influence the employee's legal rights and obligations, as well as future employment.

Obtaining a waiver of all your rights, so that you can't sue the employer is supposed to be the main purpose of severance agreements. To induce you to sign, employers offer to pay you some money. Severance agreements can contain any terms the employer wants to put in there. Some employers put non-compete language in the agreement, or they put new non-compete language in the agreement that is better-worded that the earlier non-compete you signed. As a result, when you bring the severance agreement to a lawyer for review, you have to also deal with the law of non-competes, and the consultation gets quite complicated.

At the Law Offices of Scott Michael Mishkin, our attorneys are well versed in severance agreements. Please, call us at 1 (866) 57 NY LABOR to get our legal advice.