whistleblowing

The Whistle Keeps Blowing: SEC Whistleblower Office Releases Its 2019 Annual Report

The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower (“OWB”) released its Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Report (the “Report”) to Congress on the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program on November 15, 2019. The Report analyzes the tips received over the last twelve months by the OWB, provides additional information about the whistleblower awards to date, and discusses the OWB’s efforts to combat retaliation and other actions that muzzle whistleblowers. To date, the SEC has recovered over $2 billion in total monetary sanctions from its enforcement actions arising from whistleblower tips, including more than $1 billion in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and interests, and it has or is scheduled to return almost $500 million to harmed investors. READ MORE

Is it now OK to have the ‘It’s not working…’ conversation in the UK?

July 29, 2013 was a big day for employment law in the UK.

Firstly compromise agreements were renamed ‘settlement agreements’. This is largely a rebranding exercise but one that is welcome as we now have a title which more accurately describes what the agreement is designed to achieve.

On this same date, changes around ‘pre-termination discussions’ came into effect. These changes are contained in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act and talk about ‘confidentiality of negotiations before termination of employment’. The theory behind this new law is that employers should be able to discuss with their employees the option of the employee leaving with a settlement agreement without the risk that that discussion itself will be used against them in a future claim. READ MORE

Federal Court Decisions Permit Two Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Cases to Proceed

Whistle

 

Two federal district courts recently issued decisions adopting a broad interpretation of the anti-retaliation provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) and allowed Dodd-Frank whistleblower claims to proceed past motions to dismiss. Significantly, these cases stand for the proposition that to be protected as a whistleblower under the retaliation provision of Dodd-Frank, an individual does not have to meet the definition of a whistleblower for purposes of obtaining a bounty under Dodd-Frank and in particular, does not necessarily have to make a disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in the manner required in connection with the bounty provision of the statute. While the issue is far from settled as Dodd-Frank retaliation cases are just beginning to work their way through the federal courts, these decisions could contribute to further increases in the number of Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation claims filed against employers. READ MORE

Orrick’s Employment Law and Litigation Global Newsletter – Summer 2012

Welcome to the first edition of Orrick World: A Quarterly Report of Global Employment Law Issues for Multinationals. We have designed this newsletter to provide our multinational clients with quarterly updates on important employment law issues across the globe.