seeking advice for a career agreement

ccnpninja

Hi,
I'm currently employed full time in a financial institution doing Cisco networking. I've negotiated a freelance position with a networking startup company that does Cisco integrations. However, I'm concerned about two things:

- first, the legal part. Does it hurt to have an extra activity, out of regular business hours, in my domain of expertise? Could my current employer be annoyed to hear that? In my job contract, I see no term related to this.

- second, in the case where it's illegal and it could hurt my reputation with my current employer: I'm thinking about making a sort of agreement with employer B. The agreement would mention that employer B would help me work on his Cisco lab and pay for my CCIE expenses. In return, once I pass the CCIE lab, I would associate my CCIE digits to his company for a certain period of time. However I don't know how many shots he's willing to give me.

I need your input guys. Thanks.