[p_j_w]

> In the case of the MD relative, he was fired, essentially without cause, and his non-compete forced him to be unemployed for a year before he was finally able to convince the former employer to waive the non-compete.

It seems like an easy and obvious solution that the non-compete is automatically null and void if the employee is let go for any reason.

[wpietri]

Unfortunately, that also has easy workarounds, like making the employee's life hell until they quit. So you'd also need to solve for constructive dismissal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal