Restrictive covenant

[northernladuk]

The client is more than happy for me to move to another agency but how would that get around the covenant?[/FONT][/SIZE]

So there are a lot of questions here and you need to be agile enough to understand the client and the agent to make it work.

Is the client happy because it's nothing to do with them and doesn't care or are they happy that they'll have your back, even against their contracted agent.
Is the person at the client that is 'happy' in a position to say that. The client manager might be but procurement/legal might not. Have you got the right person?
Does the agency have enough people on site to let one revenue stream go or are you their single source of income?
What is the clients relationship with the agency like?

The way to get around the handcuff clause, as with any contractual issue, is negotiation. The contract is an agreement of key principles. It isn't to say that each of those could be discussed and waived in some form. Notice periods for example. Contract says 4 weeks. Ask the client to leave in 2, if you do this and that they agree and off you go in 2.
Now in your case, the agent won't like it because they are losing revenue so the only way to negotiate it out is for the client to strong arm the agent. Keep me happy or lose business in a nutshell. All depends on the clients relationship with the agent and the clients willingness to fight your corner.

If the client is happy for you to move because they don't care and it's none of their business then there is very little you can do, the handcuff will stand.

[Fred Bloggs]

The client is more than happy for me to move to another agency but how would that get around the covenant?

As far as I can see, this can realistically only happen if the client tells the agent they are moving you to another agency.

[thunderlizard]

It's a bit late now, but a learning point for the future.

When starting work with a client where you've not been introduced by the agency, tell the agency to remove those handcuff clauses from the contract.

Every time I've asked for this, it's been accepted as the agency can't really handcuff someone they didn't find.

I did exactly this one time, years ago. Client told me to pick one of the agencies on their list and go via them. When confronted with their standard contract with the restrictive covenant in, I told them it wasn't appropriate, and with seemingly mild reluctance they agreed to take it out.

Fast-forward a year or two, when the client took that agency off its supplier list. "Not a problem" I thought, as there was no restrictive covenant to stop me hopping to one on their new list. What I hadn't expected was that the agency had left the restrictive covenant in their client-facing contract and ended up taking me down with them.

So I'd recommend, at risk of being an awkward so-and-so, you warn the client of this possibility and get them to take it out of their end too.