Reference no: EM131657558

Question: Kelly Services is a staffing services company that provides a range of employment staffing and consulting services. Greene, who was 24 years old, began working for Kelly Services six months after graduating from college. At the beginning of her employment, she signed an agreement that contained both noncompete and confidentiality clauses. The noncompete clause stated in part: "I will not compete against Kelly or associate myself with any Kelly competitor as an employee, owner, partner. These same limitations apply for one year after I leave Kelly in any market area in which I worked or had responsibility during the past five years of my employment with Kelly." She was a "staffing supervisor" for Kelly Services for more than two years. As a staffing supervisor, Greene serviced and maintained relationships with customers, developed new business, and recruited candidates throughout Cumberland and York Counties in Maine.

About 75 percent of Greene's work at Kelly Services involved recruiting activities for Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Unum, and Citigroup Financial, including spending one full year on-site at Unum. Greene voluntarily resigned from Kelly Services in December 2007, at least in part because of repeated statements about possible layoffs made by a supervisor at Kelly Services. She began working for the Portland office of Maine Staffing Group as a "staffing specialist," where her duties were primarily clerical. The Portland office of Maine Staffing recruits blue-collar positions for the construction and trade industries and does not recruit for clients seeking to fill office or clerical positions. In her new job she did not seek new accounts or customers and did not solicit business involving white-collar personnel. She did not retain any Kelly Services documents and has not used any protected information from Kelly Services in her new job. Kelly Services filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Greene for violating the noncompete that she signed. Is the noncompete clause likely to be enforced so as to prevent her from working at Maine Staffing?