Recently, I was retained by a client with an all-too-common story: one of its former employees, who signed a noncompete agreement, was working for a competitor and soliciting the client’s customers. I sent the former employee and his new employer a cease-and-desist letter, attaching the signed noncompete.

The next day, I got a call from the former employee. He said that he had forgotten that he had signed the noncompete years before. And he told me that he had quit his job with the competitor (which I had him and the competitor confirm in writing), and that he would no longer do work in my client’s field.

I have no idea whether the former employee really forgot about the noncompete, though I doubt it. More likely, he knew he had signed a noncompete, but he just hoped that my client wouldn’t enforce it. Regardless, this situation shows how important it is to address a departing employee’s noncompete obligations before he leaves the company.

The most efficient, effective way to handle this is through an exit interview. During the interview, the departing employee should be given a copy of his noncompete agreement and asked to sign an acknowledgement of his noncompete obligations. This sends the message that the company is serious about enforcing the agreement, hopefully deterring the departing employee from otherwise disregarding his obligations.

The exit interview also gives a company an opportunity to gather intelligence about whether there is a risk that the departing employee may violate his noncompete. If a departing employee refuses to sign the acknowledgement, or is evasive when asked about his next job, it may be worth consulting with an attorney to figure out how to proceed.

In my client’s case, there’s a good chance that had they conducted an exit interview, the former employee never would have accepted a job with their competitor.