Somewhere between reading the clause for the fourth time and sending a resignation email, most people decide they want a second opinion, and then stall on what that opinion costs and whether it will say anything they do not already suspect. The stall is the expensive part. An hour of an employment attorney's time is a known quantity with a known price, and the thing it competes against is not silence but a guess, made under pressure, about a document written by someone paid to protect the other side. Here is what the hour contains.
1. A flat fee buys a scope, not a relationship
Many employment attorneys offer a fixed price to read a single agreement and tell you what it means, quoted in advance and usually covering one conversation plus the reading time. That is a different product from an hourly retainer, and it is priced that way because the work is bounded: one document, one state, one set of facts. Ask what the fee includes before you pay it, specifically whether it covers a follow-up call, whether it covers anything in writing, and whether the clock restarts if your prospective employer sends a revised offer.
2. Hourly work starts when someone else gets involved
The moment a former employer's counsel writes to you, or your new employer's general counsel wants assurances, the matter stops being a reading exercise and becomes correspondence. Correspondence is billed by the hour, in increments, and the number of hours depends on how many letters the other side decides to send. A careful reader asks for the hourly rate at the first meeting even when buying a flat-fee review, because knowing the rate tells you the cost of the next stage before you need it, and lets you judge whether a quick phone call is worth the billing entry.
3. The meeting is only as good as the paper you bring
Bring the signed agreement, every version of it, including the one attached to the original offer letter and any amendment folded into a promotion, a bonus plan, or an equity grant. Bring the employee handbook only if it references the covenant. Bring your job description, your actual duties, the territory you covered, the accounts you touched, and the dates you held each title. Bring the new offer in writing. The clause is interpreted against what you did, not what your title said, and the attorney cannot assess reasonableness without the specifics only you hold.
4. A written opinion has a job the conversation cannot do
A verbal read is enough to decide whether to sign. A short written opinion, even two pages, does something else: it sits in a file, dated before you resigned, describing what you were told and what you relied on. If a cease-and-desist letter arrives, that document shapes the response, because it shows you sought advice and acted on it rather than ignoring the clause. It also lets your new employer's counsel read the analysis directly instead of taking your summary of it. Ask for it in writing, and expect to pay a little more.
5. The crossover point is earlier than it feels
Weigh the fee against the thing you are risking, which is rarely the fee's size. A guess that turns out wrong can cost a job offer withdrawn during the notice period, an unvested grant forfeited, a forwarded letter that spooks a hiring manager, or legal fees shifted to you under a clause you skimmed. The Federal Trade Commission has taken a sustained interest in how non-compete terms work in American employment, and the legal ground has moved in several states, which means last year's confident answer from a friend in the same industry may simply be out of date. Paid advice is priced against a single document. Guessing is priced against your next two years of income.
One useful test before booking: write down the three questions you actually need answered, in one sentence each. If you can do that, an hour is generally enough, and the attorney will spend it on your facts rather than on orientation. If you cannot, the first fifteen minutes will get you there, and that is still the cheapest fifteen minutes available to you.