Non Compete agreements are VERY common in the US. And they should be...there is a lot of proprietary information that one learns, particularly higher up in the business. The guy probably makes enough money that if he really wanted out of MS, he could have gone to a laundromat for a year and not felt a dent. Our firm has noncompetes, and I enforce them very strictly. We work with money in a very unique way in our office, and I know tax tricks that were taught to me by my boss, and I'll pass them on...things that you only know from years of experience and learning the rules, readings, etc. To distill those down to someone, and then have them walk off and educate your competitor...you'd be handing your business away.
