LexMonitor

OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program Will Now Report Directly to Assistant Secretary of Labor, Signaling Increased Priority for Whistleblower Enforcement

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) announced on March 1, 2012 that its Office of the Whistleblower Protection Program (“WPP”) will now report directly to the Department of Labor’s Office of the Assistant Secretary, rather than to its Directorate...

By: Stuart M. Gerson Lawson v. Fidelity Management & Research LLC, et al., No. 10-2240 (1st Cir. Feb. 3, 2012) (pdf), discussed in our February 16 posting, comes as a welcome development to privately-held companies that are providers of health care goods and services because it should, if...

First Circuit Limits SOX Whistleblower Protection to Employees of Public Companies

By: Christina Fletcher Confronting an issue of first impression, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently held that the “whistleblower” protections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”) cover only employees of public companies, and do not extend to...

Whistleblower Risks - It May Be Time to Reexamine Assumptions about their Management and Insurability

Those concerned with managing or insuring risk are affected increasingly by the evolution of whistleblowing, especially as new laws and interpretations since 2009 have changed the stakes by redefining whistleblower protections and bounty award entitlements. Virtually any risk management program...

SOX Recap

Allen B. Roberts and Stuart Gerson  are co-authors of the recent Law360 article Examining The Purpose Of Sarbanes-Oxley. This summary of recent Administrative Review Board actions explains the shift in the standards whistleblowers must meet, and how employers should prepare for this new era of...

SEC Final Rule on Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Bounty Awards and Protections Discussed in Bloomberg Article

In previous articles and postings, we have cautioned that legislative policy of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act threatens to circumvent corporate compliance programs and drive whistleblowers having vital information outside the organization in the hope of receiving...

U.S. Supreme Court Reins-In The Scope of Whistleblower Lawsuits Filed Under the False Claims Act

By: Stuart M. Gerson On May 16, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex rel. Kirk (pdf), holding that the public disclosure bar of the False Claims Act (FCA) is triggered by a federal agency’s written response to a Freedom...

Health Care and Life Sciences Employers: Let's Meet on 6/7/11 in Washington, DC at Our HEAL (Health Employment And Labor) Summit

Please join the attorneys of EpsteinBeckerGreen on June 7, 2011, at the National Press Club, as we present eight panels covering labor and employment topics that have increasingly impacted employers in the health care industry.  Our first panel, entitled Significant Labor and Employment Issues...

Sarbanes-Oxley "Protected Activity" Wins a Broad Interpretation - But Is the Decision Faithful to Congressional Intent?

By: Allen B. Roberts, Stuart M. Gerson and Daniel J. Schuch In a case packed with allegations of the kind rarely found beyond the script of a soap opera, the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") Administrative Review Board ("ARB") determined that protected...

Food Safety and Whistleblowing - New Federal Law May Deliver a Full Basket of Claims

By Allen B. Roberts and John Houston Pope With virtually no fanfare, a major sector of the American workforce – those who handle food – won whistleblower protections under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (“FSMA”), Pub. L. No. 111-353. The Food and Drug...