A lot of our client contracts include mutual "no poaching" clauses. Obviously we are a lot smaller, but what determines when this is OK and when it's not?
You and your clients are presumably not peers. While it might make sense for some of your employees to jump to or from them, it's not nearly the same as jumping to a competitor of yours. Of course, if you aren't in California you can lock them down with a non-compete, but then again that's why (I think) Silicon Valley has been so consistently and overwhelmingly successful (it's the one absolutely unique advantage it…
Actually, they sometimes are. We solve hard consulting problems for competitors quite frequently. And those are then the cases with most need for an agreement like this...
(By the by, I'm a fan of the laws allowing people to build their own stuff in their spare time without using company resources).