On March 19, 2025, Wyoming passed a new law, SF 107, broadly circumscribing employers’ use of noncompete agreements. Generally, SF 107 broadly prohibits covenants that restrict the right of “any person” to receive compensation for performance of skilled or unskilled labor. The law will take effect on July 1, 2025, and only impacts contracts entered on or after July 1, 2025.
With respect to Wyoming physicians, specifically, SF 107 provides that:
Any covenant not to compete provision of an employment, partnership or corporate agreement between physicians that restricts the right of a physician to practice medicine as defined in W.S. 33-26-102(a)(xi), upon termination of a physician’s employment, partnership or corporate affiliation, is void provided that all other provisions of the agreement enforceable at law shall remain enforceable.
Moreover, physicians whose employment has been terminated may disclose their continuing practice of medicine and new professional contact information to any patient with a rare disorder, as defined in accordance with the National Organization For Rare Disorders. Disclosures to a successor organization to whom the physician was providing consultation or treatment before termination of the employment is also permissible. Finally, the new law shields physicians from claims of damages by former employers due to medical practice disclosures.
Wyoming’s New Noncompete Law is a Logical Extension of the Supreme Court’s Increasing Reluctance to Enforce Noncompete Agreements, Particularly in the Healthcare Industry
The trajectory of Wyoming’s stance on noncompetes may not come as a surprise to many given the Wyoming Supreme Court’s ruling in Hassler v. Circle C Res., 505 P.3d 169 (Wyo. 2022). There, the Court rejected “blue penciling” by courts of law and ruled that noncompete agreements violating public policy, or that are otherwise unreasonable as to their duration, scope of services prohibited, or geographic scope, are void in their entirety, and that, contrary to past practice, Wyoming courts will not enforce such restrictions to the extent they would be reasonable if written more narrowly.[1] The Wyoming Supreme Court had, in recent years, been making it more difficult to enforce noncompetes in the healthcare context, particularly. For instance, in Brown v. Best Home Health & Hospice, LLC, 491 P.3d 1021 (Wyo. 2021), the Wyoming Supreme Court reversed an injunction against nurses working for a competitor, emphasizing that...
