Does an employee non-solicitation clause still apply if the seller hires someone in another city?

Generally yes, because employee non-solicitation clauses are usually tied to specific identified individuals, not to a geographic territory the way a non-compete is. A non-compete typically restricts the seller from operating a competing business within a defined area, so location genuinely matters to that kind of clause. A non-solicitation clause, by contrast, typically prohibits soliciting or hiring particular protected employees of the target business, regardless of where the seller's new venture or the employee's new role happens to be physically located.

Because the restriction attaches to the person rather than a place, hiring a former employee remotely or in a different city usually does not put the seller outside the clause's reach if that individual otherwise falls within the defined group of protected employees and the restriction is still within its stated time period. What matters more is whether the specific person was a covered employee under the clause's definition and whether the applicable time limit has expired, not the geography of where the new employment happens to be based. Reviewing the actual defined scope of "covered employees" in the clause is the key step.