Lessig: California Law Treats Vested Equity as Unconditional Wages
Lawrence "Larry" Lessig · What The Ex-OpenAI Safety Employees Are Worried About · Jul 3, 2024 · at 21:51
Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig discusses the legality of OpenAI's non-disparagement exit agreements and equity clawback provisions under California labor law.
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“Equity Is wage in the state of California. If you earn equity, your vested equity, it's like your wages. And when you leave, they can't say, oh, here's a bunch of other additional agree terms you must agree to in order to take what you've already earned. So the non-disparagement part, any other additional obligations that were demanded were not actually obligations that could be enforced.”
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