Dissecting Non-Compete Litigation with Analytics

In late 2025, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced that it would no longer seek enforcement of a controversial April 2024 rule that would have banned most non-compete contractual provisions in the United States. Employer groups successfully sued to block the rule from taking effect in, and the FTC has abandoned its appeals. Private enforcement of non-compete breaches has accordingly marched on, with over 600 newly filed lawsuits in federal district courts each year from 2023 through 2025. 

For contractual disputes arising out of a clause in an employment or franchise contract which prohibits a party from performing similar work for a different entity, the Lex Machina platform enables law offices to pursue data-informed strategies for claim assessments, motion arguments, settlement negotiations, trial tactics, lateral hiring, and more.  

Advanced Insights for Non-Compete and Trade Secret Litigation 

From the enactment of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act in 2016 through the end of 2025, nearly half of non-compete claims filed in federal courts were asserted concurrently with a claim for misappropriation of trade secrets, a jump of more than twelve percentage points compared to the six-year period preceding DTSA’s enactment. The trend has accelerated in recent years, with more than 54 percent of non-compete lawsuits filed from 2023 through 2025 also containing trade-secret claims. 

“I’ve only seen this area of the law continue to grow as long as I’ve been practicing, and certainly showing no signs of slowing down,” said Jacob Pritt, attorney with Jones Walker LLP. “When I started practicing, I was shocked by the sheer amount of people . . . taking information and going down the street to work for a competitor. We see it over and over again. Companies are wising up to it and coming up with ways to protect their information, so we expect this area of the law to continue to grow.” 

“Damage models under DTSA cases have become much more well developed,” said Tom Hubert, partner with Jones Walker LLP. “The rewards have gotten very large,” thereby encouraging litigation.  

For example, in May 2025, a jury in the Eastern District of Arkansas awarded over $200 million in damages to Zest Labs, Inc. in a trade-secret dispute against Walmart.  

Recent non-compete litigation in the field of artificial intelligence has “exploded”, said Tom Hubert, partner with Jones Walker LLP. Noteworthy examples include X.AI v. OpenAI, Inc. et al in the Northern District of California.  

“Emotions run very high in these cases. No one likes to have their information stolen from them and used against them,” said Tom Hubert. “They’re very complicated cases. Forensics companies come in, conduct imaging, find out how information was taken, where it went, and try to help get it back.” 

Analytics for Navigating Non-Compete Litigation  

As litigation for non-compete agreements becomes even more complicated and emotionally charged, companies and their counsel can turn to Lex Machina to anticipate potential outcomes, uncover insights quickly, and deliver data-informed litigation strategies.  

Lex Machina®, the LexisNexis® Legal Analytics® platform, delivers powerful data and exclusive insights for litigation involving non-compete agreements in federal courts. For each commercially relevant lawsuit that matters to non-compete lawyers and trade secret specialists, companies and law firms with Lex Machina easily learn who won, how much was awarded, what remedies were imposed, by what procedural means, under what findings, how long it took, and more – not to mention important experience metrics for the courts, judges, law firms, attorneys, and parties involved. That enables legal professionals to analyze filing trends, assess the strength of claims and defenses, and advise clients with greater confidence.  

Learn more about Lex Machina and how our platform enables data-driven decisions for civil litigation.