Glossary
Non-solicit
A non-solicit is a promise not to poach the other side’s staff, clients or leads for a period after the job.
Last updated 26 October 2026
A non-solicit, or non-solicitation clause, says one side will not try to hire the other’s people, or take their customers, for a set time after the contract ends. It is narrower than a non-compete, which tries to block a whole kind of work. The usual aim is “don’t hire my team and don’t take the account”.
The usual points to read are who is covered (named staff, anyone you met, any customer), how long it lasts, and whether answering a job ad the other person started still counts. A clause that bans “any customer of the client” is wider than “customers you dealt with on this project”.
Agencies and studios often ask for this both ways, so neither side hires the other’s team off a shared project. A one-way non-solicit on the freelancer only is how a studio can hire the freelancer’s contractor and the freelancer cannot hire the studio’s junior.
This page does not say when a non-solicit will or will not be treated as going too far. That differs by place. The practical habit is to keep the list short, the time short, and the trigger as “actively approaching”, not “happened to be in the same Slack community”.
A non-solicit is not a non-compete and it is not confidentiality. You can usually still work in the same industry. You just do not tap the other side’s people or their named accounts for the stated period.
A worked example
After a six-month build, neither the studio nor the client may hire the other’s people on that project for nine months. The freelancer who designed the screens is named. If they apply to a public job ad the client posted, that is not treated as solicitation. If the client DMs them an offer, that is.
How it shows up in a contract
Sample wording · our own drafting
For [9] months after this agreement ends, neither party will solicit the employment of the other party's personnel who worked on the Services, or solicit the other party's customers that the soliciting party first dealt with under this agreement. This clause does not stop a party hiring a person who applies to a genuine public advertisement without prior solicitation.
In Plain English
For nine months after this ends, neither side will try to hire the people who worked on this job, or take the customers they only met because of this job. A person who answers a real public job ad, without being tapped first, is fine.
Common mistakes
- Signing a one-way non-solicit when both sides are sharing people on the project.
- Covering “any customer of the client” when you only met one brand team.
- Banning a hire even when the person applied to a public ad you did not prompt.
- Mixing non-solicit and non-compete into one sentence so the narrower promise disappears.
Related
The legal wording governsLast reviewed 26 October 2026Pending lawyer review