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Can you find any specific examples? I've only seen that apply to severance agreements where you're being paid some additional sum for that non-disparagement clause.

Never seen anything that says money or equity you've already earned could be clawed back.

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I negotiated a starting bonus with my employer and signed a contract that I would need to pay it back if I quit within a year.

Wells Fargo clawed back from the CEO (and a couple others if I remember) over the fake account scandals.

Right, but would that have been achieved with a clause open-ended enough to allow this additional paperwork on exit?

Or would that have been an "if you break the law" thing?

Seems unlikely that OpenAI are legally in the clear here with nice clear precedent. Why? Because they are backflipping to deny it's something they'd ever do.

I think they are backpedaling rapidly to avoid major discontent among their workers. By the definition of their stock as laid out in their articles of incorporation, they have the right to reduce any former employee's stock to 0, or to prevent them from ever selling it, which is basically the same thing. This makes their stock offers to employees much less valuable than the appear at face value, so their current and future employees may very well start demanding actual dollars instead.

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