How to write a non-solicit clause that protects your team

A client hiring one of your team members directly costs more than the person, it costs the investment made training and integrating them, the disruption to the projects they were on, and a precedent that clients can informally poach talent instead of paying for the actual service. A missing or vague non-solicit clause leaves that risk entirely unaddressed.

A non-solicit clause that actually protects the team isn't punitive toward the client or the employee. It's specific enough that it holds without feeling like an unreasonable restriction on anyone.

Losing a team member to a client costs more than the person

Direct hiring by a client disrupts every project that person was on, represents a real loss of institutional knowledge, and if it happens without consequence, sets an informal precedent that team members are available for hire outside the normal channel. Recognize the full real cost before treating it as a minor administrative gap.

Name specifically what actually counts as solicitation

Define clearly what's actually restricted, direct recruitment initiated by the client, versus an employee independently applying to a role they found on their own. An overly broad clause that restricts the employee's own agency is both unfair and harder to enforce.

Put a real, reasonable time window on the restriction

An indefinite restriction is both hard to enforce and disproportionate to the actual risk. Set a reasonable window, during the engagement and for a defined period after, so the clause is proportionate and more likely to actually hold if challenged.

Include a genuine buyout option instead of a flat prohibition

A flat prohibition with no path forward can feel unreasonably restrictive to a client who has a genuine, good-faith interest in hiring someone. Include an explicit buyout fee option, a fair, priced path, rather than an absolute no with no alternative.

Explain it as protecting the team, not controlling their choices

Frame the clause, both to clients and internally to your own team, as protecting the business relationship and the investment made in the team, not as restricting an employee's own career choices. That framing matters both for morale and for how defensible the clause actually is.

A simple checklist

If you do nothing else, do these five things:

• Define specifically what counts as client-initiated solicitation.
• Set a reasonable, defined time window, not an indefinite restriction.
• Include a genuine buyout option instead of a flat prohibition.
• Frame it as protecting the team, not controlling their choices.
• Distinguish client-initiated recruitment from an employee's own independent move.

Do that, and a non-solicit clause protects the real investment in your team without reading as an unreasonable restriction on anyone.