The Court of Appeals Just Prohibited Employee Non-Solicitation Practices in Sentry Force Security v. Barrera. What’s Next?

By: Lilias M. Gordon, Associate

Following the FTC’s attempted ban on non-competes in 2024, which was later abandoned on appeal, states have charted their own course when it comes to post-employment restraints. The landscape currently resembles a patchwork of full bans, salary-threshold limits, and the traditional reasonableness standards. While few states have adopted the most restrictive, full-ban approach, a growing number of states, including Virginia, now use a threshold-driven model, where earnings floors determine whether non-competes or non-solicitations are enforceable. Notably, those “low-wage” floors now reach six figures in states like Washington and Oregon, whereas Virginia has adopted a new bright line rule for prohibiting non-competes, and as of last month, employee non-solicitation provisions.

The Virginia Court of Appeals’ decision in Sentry Force Security, LLC v. Barrera spotlights Virginia’s newly updated, threshold-driven stance: customer non-solicitations may remain viable to prohibit a former employee from initiating contact, but employee non-solicitations will be treated as prohibited non-competes for protected workers. A broader group than it sounds, this “protected worker” classification covers most hourly roles and others below the state pay benchmark. For context, the state uses the Commonwealth’s average weekly wage, about $78,000 annually in 2026, which sits below Washington and Oregon’s six-figure floors but remains significant. This marks a departure from Virginia’s traditional common-law reasonableness approach, where narrowly drawn non-solicitation clauses were previously enforced.

So, what does this mean for Virginia employers? Considering the Court of Appeals’ recent decision, employers should treat customer and employee non-solicitation provisions differently. Customer non-solicitations may still be used so long as any outreach is worker-initiated. After Barrera, an employer may prohibit even protected workers from initiating contact with the employer’s customers, but may not bar the worker from accepting business, if the customer approaches that former employee. Employee non-solicitations, however, should be removed from agreements for roles that fall within the protected-worker category, earning less than $78,060, as they are no longer enforceable.

What’s next for Virginia? Will there be higher earnings floors? Might the currently protected customer non-solicitation provisions be next on the chopping block? Though the Sentry Force Security, LLC v. Barrera decision brings some clarity, it leaves Virginia employers wondering which post-employment restraints will remain enforceable and when the next shift may occur. For now, employers should rework agreements to exclude employee non-solicitations, expect annual updates to the low-wage floor, and consider any gray areas that may remain around customer non-solicitation.