Pre-close · Home Services

Employment & Non-Compete Agreements Counsel for Home Services Acquisitions

Securities and M&A counsel for independent sponsors negotiating home services transactions, from LOI to close to the capital markets that open up afterward.

EV range $8M to $80M EV EBITDA $2M to $15M Audience Buy-side / Sponsor
The deal context

Every home services acquisition has its own gravity. Employment & Non-Compete Agreements is the workstream where independent sponsor counsel earns the seat.

The typical home services platform sits at $8M to $80M EV with EBITDA in the $2M to $15M range. The thesis runs on regional roll-ups of HVAC, plumbing, and electrical operators. The cleanest home services deals close in 60 days from LOI. The mess is almost always in the licenses, not the financials.

The moves

How Employment & Non-Compete Agreements actually gets structured.

  1. Negotiate seller non-competes to the maximum enforceable scope, by state law.

  2. Refresh key employee restrictive covenants pre-close, where possible.

  3. Address the FTC non-compete rule and its state-by-state aftermath.

  4. Tie executive non-competes to retention bonus economics that survive a quick exit.

  5. In home services, layer in working capital peg that survives a slow February as part of the Employment & Non-Compete Agreements workstream.

The common mistake

Drafting a national-scope non-compete in California. Enforceability is a binary, not a spectrum.

Jason's take
"A non-compete is only as strong as the state it sits in. Draft for the state, not the deal."
Jason Powell · Employment & Non-Compete Agreements
Capital after close

The deal is one thing. The capital that opens up after close is another.

Capital after close is where the IRR actually gets made. The right introductions at month nine through month thirty are where this practice works as hard as it does at the LOI.

MONTH 18
Senior refi
MONTH 24
Dividend recap
MONTH 36
Growth equity
YEAR 4–5
Strategic exit
ENGAGE THE PRACTICE

Employment & Non-Compete Agreements for Home Services, on independent sponsor terms.

Independent sponsor counsel that already speaks fluent deal-by-deal economics, structures clean LPAs, and travels with capital markets relationships for what comes after close.