If you run or manage a veterinary practice in California, the non-compete clause you may have tucked into your associate contracts is almost certainly unenforceable, and in 2024 the state made that fact harder to ignore. Here's a plain-English walk-through of where the law stands and why it matters.

The Baseline Rule: California Voids Almost All Non-Competes

California has been hostile to employee non-competes for well over a century. The core statute, Business and Professions Code section 16600, states that every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is, to that extent, void.

Courts have read that language broadly. Unlike most states, California does not apply a "reasonableness" test that lets employers enforce a narrowly tailored non-compete. The default is simple: the restraint is void, full stop.

There are narrow statutory exceptions, chiefly tied to the sale of a business or the dissolution of a partnership or LLC, but those are about owners selling their stake, not rank-and-file employees changing jobs.

What Changed in 2024

Two state laws, Senate Bill 699 (SB 699) and Assembly Bill 1076 (AB 1076), took effect January 1, 2024, and together they closed loopholes employers had leaned on.

SB 699 added section 16600.5, which makes a void non-compete unenforceable regardless of where and when the contract was signed. The target here is the out-of-state employer who hires in California and argues that another state's law (where non-competes are allowed) should govern. California's answer: it doesn't matter. An employer who tries to enforce or even impose such a clause may be committing a civil violation, and the law creates a private right of action, meaning a worker can sue.

AB 1076 codified the longstanding case law into section 16600.1, confirming that the ban reaches non-competes "no matter how narrowly tailored."

What About the Federal FTC Ban?

You may remember headlines about the Federal Trade Commission banning non-competes nationwide in 2024. That rule was challenged in court and is not currently in effect: a district court order stopped the FTC from enforcing it in August 2024, and the FTC dismissed its own appeal in September 2025. For California employers, it's largely academic either way: state law already goes further than the federal rule would have. California's ban is the one that governs your contracts, and it's not going anywhere.

The Contract Can't Do This Job Anymore

Veterinary medicine is exactly the kind of field where non-competes get used and where California's rule bites hardest. A practice invests in an associate, builds a client base around them, and understandably doesn't want them walking across town to a competitor with a patient list. But in California, a clause forbidding that move is unenforceable, and continuing to paper contracts with one now carries real downside.

Practices should stop putting non-competes in associate and technician contracts altogether, since a boilerplate clause isn't protecting anyone. It's void, and post-2024 it can expose an employer to a lawsuit and unfair-competition liability. Anyone with affected employees who missed the February 2024 notice deadline should talk to counsel about curing it now.

California still lets employers protect trade secrets, confidential information, and reasonable, properly drafted non-solicitation of confidential data provisions, just not a bar on a former employee practicing at all. With the contract no longer able to fence people in, retention has to do that job instead, and building staff retention that holds up without a non-compete starts with the basics: competitive pay, manageable caseloads, and a work model that respects the team's time.

This isn't legal advice, and the wrinkles, especially around the business-sale exception and exactly which former employees needed notice, deserve a conversation with an employment attorney. But the headline is clear: in California, keeping good people depends on the workplace you build, since the contract can no longer do that job for you.