Are Non-Competes Enforceable for Therapists and Behavioral Health Staff in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts splits the answer by license.

Under G.L. ch. 112, any clause that restricts a licensed psychologist's (§129B) or licensed social worker's (§135C) right to practice in any geographic area for any period after an employment, partnership or other professional relationship ends is void and unenforceable — and the rest of the contract survives.

The chapter does the same for registered nurses and licensed practical nurses (§74D) and for physicians, including psychiatrists (§12X).

The other people a behavioral health practice hires — licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, behavior analysts, RBTs, BHTs and front-office staff — get no profession-specific section in chapter 112.

Their covenants are governed by the Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act, G.L. ch. 149, §24L, which applies to agreements entered into on or after October 1, 2018.

The Act regulates rather than bans: a non-compete can hold, but only if it satisfies every requirement in the statute.

• Some workers can never be bound. §24L makes a non-compete unenforceable against an employee classified as non-exempt under the FLSA — for many ABA and clinic roles that means hourly RBTs and BHTs, though classification, not job title, decides — and against student interns, employees age 18 or younger, and anyone laid off or terminated without cause.
• Independent contractors are covered too. §24L defines "employee" to include independent contractors under G.L. ch. 149, §148B, so the Act's limits reach contracted clinicians as well as W-2 staff.

Massachusetts governs non-competes by statute, on two floors, and which floor controls depends on the employee's license rather than your industry.

Floor one — chapter 112.

G.L. ch. 112 carries profession-specific voiding rules: §12X for physicians, §74D for nurses, §129B for psychologists and §135C for social workers.

Each voids the post-employment practice restriction; the remainder of the agreement stays in force.

A scan of the chapter's section list shows no comparable section for licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists or behavior analysts.

Floor two — the Noncompetition Agreement Act.

G.L. ch. 149, §24L covers the staff chapter 112 does not — for a behavioral health practice, everyone who is not a physician, nurse, psychologist or licensed social worker.

One provision closes the obvious workaround: no choice-of-law provision that would have the effect of avoiding §24L's requirements is enforceable for an employee who has lived or worked in Massachusetts for at least 30 days before leaving, so that employee cannot be signed out of §24L's requirements by pointing the contract at another state's law.

This page is Massachusetts only; how other states treat behavioral health clinicians is in our guide to non-competes nationally.

Chapter 112's protected list covers exactly four licenses — physicians (§12X), nurses (§74D), psychologists (§129B) and social workers (§135C).

No similar section for licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists or behavior analysts appears in the chapter.

What that means by hire type:

• Psychiatrists — protected. As physicians, §12X voids any restriction on the right to practice medicine in any area for any period after the relationship ends.
• RNs and LPNs — protected. §74D voids any contract restriction on the right to practice as a nurse in any geographic area for any period.
• PMHNPs — an open question. The §74D text covers nurses registered under §74 (RNs) and §74A (LPNs); whether it protects a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner in the nurse-practitioner role is not addressed by the statute. Confirm with employment counsel before relying on it either way for a PMHNP hire.
• Psychologists and social workers — protected. §§129B and 135C void the restriction, and the rest of the contract survives.
• LMHCs, LMFTs and behavior analysts — no profession-specific statute. They fall under §24L like everyone else on staff.

One boundary worth internalizing: the chapter 112 rules void the restriction, not the employment agreement.

Pay, benefits, confidentiality terms and everything else in the contract survive; only the covenant dies.

For §24L-covered staff, the statute writes the test itself, so check a draft against it clause by clause:

• Form and timing. Signed at hiring, the agreement must be in writing, signed by both parties, state the employee's right to consult counsel, and be provided by the earlier of a formal offer of employment or 10 business days before employment starts. Signed after employment begins, it needs fair and reasonable consideration independent from continued employment plus at least 10 business days' notice before it takes effect.
• Legitimate business interest and scope. The agreement must be no broader than necessary to protect the employer's trade secrets, confidential information that would not otherwise qualify as a trade secret, or goodwill.
• Time. The restricted period may not exceed 12 months from the date employment ceases; two years is the ceiling only where the employee breached a fiduciary duty or unlawfully took the employer's property.
• Area. Have Massachusetts employment counsel check the covenant's geographic reach against §24L before it goes into an offer, rather than copying a stock radius from a template.
• Consideration — the expensive one. The covenant must be supported by garden-leave pay of at least 50 percent of the employee's highest annualized base salary paid by the employer within the 2 years preceding termination, or by other mutually-agreed-upon consideration stated in the agreement.

If a draft overreaches, a Massachusetts court may in its discretion reform or revise the agreement so it is valid and enforceable to the extent necessary to protect the applicable legitimate business interests — treat that as a safety net, not a drafting strategy.

And run the garden-leave arithmetic before a covenant goes into an offer: half of the clinician's highest annualized base salary from the prior two years is a real cost.

These sit outside the Act. §24L's definition of a noncompetition agreement excludes covenants not to solicit or hire employees, covenants not to solicit or transact business with customers, clients or vendors, and nondisclosure agreements — so a client non-solicit, an employee non-solicit and an NDA are not subject to the statute's notice, 12-month and garden-leave rules.

When a non-compete is void or uneconomic, these are the protections to get right.

Two cautions:

• Psychologists and social workers: the statutes' text does not settle non-solicits. §§129B and 135C void restrictions on the right to practice in any geographic area for any period; whether a client non-solicitation clause counts as such a restriction is not stated in their text. Have Massachusetts employment counsel review any client non-solicit you use with those licensees instead of assuming it survives.
• Outside §24L is not a guarantee of enforceability. These remain contract terms, so size them to an interest you can point to — the client relationships the departing clinician actually held — rather than copying a template.

For drafting detail, the ethics-code backdrop and other states' rules, see our guide to non-solicitation clauses.

• Sort the roster by license first. Psychologists and social workers: the restriction is void. Psychiatrists: §12X. RNs and LPNs: §74D, with the nurse-practitioner question open. LMHCs, LMFTs, BCBAs and unlicensed staff: §24L, every formality observed.
• Get the timing right at the offer. Deliver the agreement by the earlier of the formal offer or 10 business days before the start date — retrofitting one mid-employment costs fair and reasonable consideration beyond continued employment plus 10 business days' notice.
• Price the garden leave before you promise it — at least 50 percent of the highest annualized base salary from the prior 2 years, or consideration you negotiate and state in the agreement.
• Lean on what the Act leaves you. Client non-solicits, employee non-solicits and NDAs sit outside §24L's definition; for a voided or uneconomic covenant they are what actually protects the practice.
• Match the tool to the actual loss. Clients leaving points to a non-solicit; recouping the cost of training or BCBA supervision points to training repayment agreements, which carry their own state-by-state rules.
• Script the departure. Put client-transition and records-custody steps in the employment agreement so a resignation does not become a client-care scramble — when a therapist leaves covers that side.
• Have Massachusetts employment counsel read the final wording. The statute's formalities are unforgiving, and the open questions above — PMHNPs under §74D, client non-solicits under chapter 112 — deserve a counsel check before an offer goes out.