whistleblower

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By: Ada W. Dolph and Howard M. Wexler

New Jersey’s whistleblower statute, the Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”), N.J.S.A. 34:19-1, is frequently referred to as one of the most expansive whistleblower statutes in the country.  Currently before the New Jersey Supreme Court is the case of Lippman v. Ethicon, Inc., No. A-65/66-13 (cert. granted Mar. 14, 2014), which will have…
Continue Reading Interest Groups Weigh In On Significant New Jersey Supreme Court Case Involving the Scope of CEPA Whistleblower Claims

By Christopher Robertson and Paul E. Freehling

The U.S. district courts are currently split on the question of whether the anti-retaliation provisions of the federal Dodd-Frank Act (“DFA”) apply to employees who disclose their employer’s alleged securities violations to company officials but do not report the claimed violations to the SEC.  Just in May 2014, for example, federal courts in…
Continue Reading Federal Courts Divided On The Definition Of “Whistleblower” As That Word Is Used In The Dodd-Frank Act

By Kerry M. Mohan and Craig B. Simonsen

In a remarkable announcement, OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels has just issued a Decision on Referring Untimely 11(c) Complainants to the National Labor Relations Board (Decision), OM-14-60 (May 21, 2014).

This announcement comes just weeks after Dr. Michaels testified at a hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Employment & Workplace Safety.
Continue Reading OSHA Decision to Refer “Untimely 11(c) Complaints” to the NLRB

By James L. Curtis, Ada W. Dolph, and Craig B. Simonsen

OSHA announced on April 3, 2014 its “Procedures for Handling Retaliation Complaints Under the Employee Protection Provision of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010,” 79 Fed. Reg. 18630 (April 3, 2014).

The Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA) is intended to protect employees against retaliation…
Continue Reading Interim Rule On Whistleblowers Procedures Under the Consumer Financial Protection Act

By Linda Schoonmaker and Ada Dolph

On March 5, 2014, we issued a Client Alert that the Supreme Court had issued its decision in Lawson v. FMR LLC, 134 S.Ct. 1158 (2014), greatly expanding the scope of the whistleblower protections in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”) to encompass any employee of private companies that contract to perform…
Continue Reading Next Steps after the Supreme Court’s Expansion of SOX Whistleblower Protections to Private Companies That Contract to Perform Work with Public Companies

By Jim Beyer

There is a split in the federal courts over the scope of Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower protections that may eventually reach the Supreme Court. The question is if there are only internal reports of potential securities law violations is that activity protected whistleblowing under the Dodd-Frank Act’s anti-retaliation provision or must the potential violations be reported to the SEC?
Continue Reading Are Whistleblower Internal Complaints Protected under Dodd-Frank?

By Clark Smith

A One-Two Punch For Employers 

Last July, we alerted you to a Fifth Circuit decision that limited the whistleblower protections of the Dodd‑Frank Act of 2010. In that case, the court held that Dodd‑Frank protects whistleblowers only if they report a securities-law violation directly to the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”), as opposed to just making an internal complaint. This month, in Villanueva v. U.S. Department of Labor, the Fifth Circuit published a decision curtailing the reach of whistleblower protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“SOX”). Taken in tandem, these two decisions are welcome news for energy employers because they significantly restrict the reach of whistleblower protections, particularly for employees working outside the U.S., who may be disinclined to make complaints directly to the SEC or who may rely on alleged violations of foreign laws to make their case.

SOX protects employees of publicly-traded companies who engage in certain protected activities such as reporting violations of certain federal laws, such as mail and wire fraud.  SOX creates a private cause of action for employees who have been retaliated against for engaging in such protected activities. Last week, in Villanueva, the Fifth Circuit ruled that SOX’s whistleblower provision only protects reporting violations of U.S. federal law. 
Continue Reading Another Victory for Energy Employers: The Fifth Circuit Limits SOX Whistleblower Suits to Violations of U.S. Federal Law

As our Seyfarth colleagues who publish the Environmental and Safety Law Update recently posted, potential tipsters have fresh incentive to come forward thanks to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent announcement that it awarded an unprecedented $14 million to an anonymous whistleblower. 

Though similar recoveries or bounties are not available under the most frequently employed whistleblower protections, this kind

…
Continue Reading SEC’s $14 Million Whistleblower Reward Likely to Lure More Tipsters

By: Pinny Goldberg and Peter Walker

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in a stark departure from every other court to previously consider the issue, has ruled that potential whistleblowers are only protected from retaliation under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010’s whistleblower-protection provision if they report a violation of the securities laws directly to the U.S. Securities…
Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Narrowly Construes Definition of “Whistleblower” under Dodd-Frank