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New Mexico Employee and Severance NDA

Draft a New Mexico employee or severance NDA under Section 50-4-36, which voids confidentiality in settlements over harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.

Introduction

An employee NDA is a confidentiality agreement between a company and a worker that protects the employer's trade secrets and confidential business information. A severance NDA is the version signed at separation, usually inside a release agreement, and it often keeps the terms of the exit private. What separates it from a commercial NDA between two businesses is who signs it: a worker cannot be forced to stay silent about unlawful conduct. In New Mexico, Section 50-4-36 makes a confidentiality provision in a settlement agreement that resolves a claim of sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation void and unenforceable as a matter of law. The reach is specific to settlement and severance releases. Only the settlement dollar amount, and identifying facts the employee asks to keep private, may stay confidential. DocDraft drafts a New Mexico employee or severance NDA from your facts, with those protected-disclosure carve-outs built in, and attorney review is available before anyone signs.

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Key Things to Know

  1. 1

    Section 50-4-36 targets settlements. It voids a confidentiality provision in a settlement or severance release that resolves a claim of sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.

  2. 2

    The settlement amount can stay private. New Mexico lets the parties keep the dollar figure of the settlement confidential even when the facts of the underlying claim cannot be hidden.

  3. 3

    Identity confidentiality is the employee's call. Facts that would identify the worker can be kept confidential only if the employee requests it, not because the employer prefers it.

  4. 4

    The restriction lives in the release. New Mexico's rule is aimed at settlement and severance agreements that resolve a covered claim, which is where a departing worker most often faces a confidentiality demand.

  5. 5

    No specific carve-out wording is mandated. Section 50-4-36 voids the offending confidentiality term outright rather than requiring a set sentence, but a clear written carve-out keeps the rest of the agreement clean.

  6. 6

    Trade secrets stay protectable. The law limits confidentiality over harassment and discrimination facts, not the protection of legitimate trade secrets and confidential business information.

  7. 7

    The federal floor still applies. The Speak Out Act, the Defend Trade Secrets Act immunity notice, and non-waivable EEOC, NLRB, and SEC reporting rights all apply on top of New Mexico law.

Key decisions before you file

Before you file a Employee and Severance NDA in New Mexico, a few decisions shape the document: which option to choose and what each one means. The Employee and Severance NDA guide walks through them.

Open the Employee and Severance NDA guide

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NEW MEXICO EMPLOYEE NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT

This Employee Non-Disclosure Agreement ("Agreement") is entered into as of [DATE] by and between [COMPANY NAME] ("Company") and [EMPLOYEE NAME] ("Employee"). This Agreement is governed by New Mexico law.

  1. PURPOSE In the course of Employee's employment, Employee will have access to confidential and proprietary information of the Company. Employee agrees to protect that information on the terms below.

  2. CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION "Confidential Information" means non-public information the Company treats as confidential, including trade secrets, business and financial data, customer and pricing lists, methods, processes, software, and other proprietary information disclosed to or learned by Employee. Confidential Information does not include information that is or becomes public through no fault of Employee, that Employee lawfully knew before employment, or that is independently developed without use of the Company's information.

  3. OBLIGATIONS Employee agrees to use Confidential Information solely for the benefit of the Company, to not disclose it to any third party without authorization, and to return or destroy all Confidential Information on request or at the end of employment.

  4. PROTECTED DISCLOSURES (NEW MEXICO, N.M. STAT. ANN. SECTION 50-4-36) Nothing in this Agreement limits or prevents Employee from: (a) reporting, filing a charge with, or communicating or cooperating with any federal, state, or local government agency, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the New Mexico Human Rights Bureau; (b) disclosing or discussing conduct Employee reasonably believes to be unlawful, including sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation; or (c) exercising any right that cannot lawfully be waived. Consistent with the federal Speak Out Act, this Agreement does not restrict Employee from speaking about a dispute involving sexual assault or sexual harassment.

  5. SETTLEMENT AND SEVERANCE RELEASES (SECTION 50-4-36) If this Agreement is part of, or accompanies, a settlement or severance release that resolves a claim involving sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation, any confidentiality provision that would prevent Employee from disclosing the underlying facts of that claim is void and unenforceable under New Mexico law. The parties may keep the settlement dollar amount confidential, and Employee may request that facts identifying Employee remain confidential. That choice belongs to Employee.

  6. DEFEND TRADE SECRETS ACT NOTICE Under the Defend Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. Section 1833(b)), an individual is immune from criminal or civil liability for disclosing a trade secret (i) in confidence to a government official or attorney solely to report or investigate a suspected violation of law, or (ii) in a complaint or other document filed under seal in a lawsuit or other proceeding.

  7. NO OTHER RESTRICTIONS ON RIGHTS This Agreement does not waive Employee's right to file a charge, testify, or participate in an investigation, and does not require Employee to notify the Company before doing so.

  8. TERM AND ENFORCEMENT Employee's obligations as to Confidential Information continue during and after employment for as long as the information remains confidential. The Company may seek injunctive relief and any other remedy available at law for a breach, subject to the protected disclosures above.

  9. GENERAL This Agreement is governed by New Mexico law. If any provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect. This Agreement is the entire understanding between the parties on this subject.

[COMPANY NAME] By: [SIGNATURE] Name/Title: [NAME AND TITLE] Date: [DATE]

EMPLOYEE [SIGNATURE] Name: [EMPLOYEE NAME] Date: [DATE]

New Mexico Requirements for Employee and Severance NDA

New Mexico Section 50-4-36

Draft a New Mexico employee or severance NDA under Section 50-4-36, which voids confidentiality in settlements over harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.

Frequently Asked Questions

An employee NDA is a contract in which a worker agrees to keep the employer's confidential information private, usually signed at hire. A severance NDA is signed at separation, generally inside a release of claims, and it often also keeps the terms of the exit private in exchange for severance pay. Both protect trade secrets and proprietary business data, and both are limited by New Mexico's Section 50-4-36 when a departure resolves a harassment or discrimination claim.

It makes a confidentiality provision in a settlement agreement void and unenforceable when that settlement resolves a claim of sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. The statute states that such a confidentiality provision is void and unenforceable as a matter of law. In practice, an employer cannot use a severance or settlement release to stop the worker from discussing the facts behind that claim.

No, not the facts of the claim. If the severance or settlement resolves a sexual harassment, discrimination, or retaliation claim, a confidentiality term covering the underlying facts is void under Section 50-4-36. The parties may still keep the settlement dollar amount confidential, and the employee may ask to keep their own identifying facts private, but the employer cannot impose broader silence.

Two narrow things. The settlement dollar amount may be kept confidential, and facts that would identify the employee may be kept confidential if the employee requests it. Everything beyond that, in a release resolving a harassment or discrimination claim, has to stay open to disclosure. The choice to shield identifying facts belongs to the worker, not the company.

No. Unlike states that mandate an exact sentence, New Mexico simply voids any confidentiality provision that violates Section 50-4-36. There is no required wording. Even so, a well-drafted New Mexico agreement spells out what the worker remains free to disclose, so a court is not left striking a clause that the drafter could have carved out from the start.

Section 50-4-36 is written around settlement agreements, so its direct force falls on severance and settlement releases rather than a day-one confidentiality agreement. A New Mexico onboarding NDA can still protect trade secrets, but it cannot be used to conceal unlawful conduct, and federal law independently bars silencing a worker from reporting harassment or discrimination to a government agency.

Yes. The statute limits confidentiality over harassment and discrimination facts, not the protection of legitimate confidential information. A New Mexico employee or severance NDA can still protect trade secrets, client and pricing data, and other genuine proprietary information, and it should include the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act immunity notice like any well-drafted NDA.

Severance is usually offered in exchange for signing a separation and release agreement, so declining can mean forgoing the payment. You are not required to sign, and you can negotiate the terms, including confirming that no confidentiality clause tries to conceal a harassment or discrimination claim in violation of Section 50-4-36. Reviewing the agreement with an attorney before signing is an option DocDraft makes available.