Dental Practice Associateships

Before you begin working in your new office, you will likely be provided an employment agreement.  This is a crucial document for both employer and employee.  From the employee’s perspective, it sets forth the job functions, term of employment, compensation, fringe benefits, etc.  From the employer’s perspective, it will often (though not always) contain restrictive covenants which protect the practice if the working relationship ends. 

In many cases, the employment agreement is limited to the employer-employee relationship.  But when a partnership or an practice sale is contemplated, we recommend that the employment agreement contain a section detailing the future arrangements.  In general, this provides that if the parties are happy with each other after a pre-determined period of time, then they will proceed to drafting the sale agreements.  The major terms of these sale agreements will have been discussed and agreed upon up front and built into the future arrangements section of the initial employment agreement.  Major issues like purchase price, division of compensation and the parties’ buy-out obligations should be addressed up front in order to minimize any potential conflict down the road.