Would I be bound by his NDA/non-disparagement?

[Velmy]

If my partner were to sign an anti-disparagement clause when leaving his job, would they be able to go after him if I were to say something disparaging about the company to the press or on social media?

To be clear I would be making these statements off my own back, and they would be my own, personally held views (DP obviously holds similar views), however I'm only party to the information that has formed the basis for them due to conversations with DP and a number of friends who have/still work for the firm.

DP and I are not (currently) married, if that makes any difference. Also, non of this would be covered by whistle-blowing regs.

All staff sign an NDA with their original contract, however this very specifically covers the sharing of commercially sensitive info with certain named competitors.

DP seems to think that there's no mention of 3rd parties in the Non Disparagements but isn't certain as the one he saw was some time ago. If this is correct, can they in effect force an indefinite Non Disparagement on me, by going after him or someone else who could have given me this info?

This is great food for thought, thank you :)

When he leaves this role (whenever that may be) he'll be leaving the industry, professionally at least. It's still his hobby and his passion though, so being involved will be inevitable!

Following on from that, if he's going to be leaving the industry, what would happen if he refused to sign the non disparagement? If they're not paying a lump sum, they can't withhold wages earnt so what leverage could they use to make him sign? He'll presumably already have another job so won't be relying on a reference, not that they can legally give a bad reference. So surely he can just refuse to sign and there's nothing they could do?

Yes, they can legally give a bad reference provided it is accurate. And, regardless of whether he signed the agreement, they could take action against him for defamation. Even if he defended himself successfully, that could be expensive for him.

This is another thing we were trying to figure out. When this has happened before they've had a few more cards to play; payouts, threatening to enforce a very long No Compete...but none of these would really affect DP unless he changed his mind to leave the industry.