The specific issue with the author of this article is that she did not disclose her prior noncompete to the new employer. Of course the new employer did not sign the noncompete with the former employer, so there is no contractual privity and thus no direct basis for the former employer to sue the new one for breach of contract. The only way the former employer can mess with them is to argue that they intentionally interfered with the contract by encouraging the journalist to violate it. The SOP for employers targeted by such claims is to put the employee in question on leave, or on alternative duty if something&#x27;s available that is unrelated to her prior job and does not risk violation of her covenants. To terminate the employee altogether is a rather extreme move. It&#x27;s a solid damage mitigation strategy, but I think conveys a total lack of spine, particularly for a journalistic organization.  The right thing to do would have been to put her on leave, while attempting to get dismissed from the lawsuit -- which should have been easy enough to do since the new employer apparently had no knowledge of the prior contract.