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Confidentiality Agreements Securities Exchange Act

WilmerHale

SEC Continues Scrutiny of Provisions That Might Impede Whistleblowers

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On September 9, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced settled charges against seven public companies for violations of certain whistleblower protections provided by Rule 21F-17 under the Securities...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

CFPB Warns Employee NDAs, Confidentiality Agreements May Violate Whistleblower Laws

On July 24, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued guidance putting financial regulators and employers on notice that requiring employees to sign broad confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements that...more

Lowenstein Sandler LLP

SEC Says Language in J.P. Morgan-Affiliate Release Agreements Violates Whistleblower Protections

Lowenstein Sandler LLP on

On January 16, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced an $18 million settlement order (Order) with J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS) that finds that the language of release agreements JPMS entered into with...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

SEC Takes on Nondisclosure Agreements to Protect Whistleblower Program; Fines Firm $10 Million

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in recent years has taken an aggressive stance against employers over employment agreements that the agency believes impede its whistleblower program—as highlighted by a $10...more

Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC

Eyes on 2024: Will the SEC Continue Its Aggressive Enforcement of Whistleblower Laws in 2024?

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC or Commission) made clear in 2023 that it intends to aggressively enforce its whistleblower protection laws, namely Rule 21F-17, which prohibits employers from taking any action...more

SECIL Law

Companies Should (Again) Review Releases They Sign With Departing Employees—The SEC Is Not Going To Lose Interest In This Issue

SECIL Law on

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), in a couple of recent settled actions, continues to warn companies that the practice of requiring departing employees to sign comprehensive releases in return for...more

White & Case LLP

How to Avoid Risk of SEC Whistleblower Rule Violations in Connection with Employee-related Documents

White & Case LLP on

On February 3, 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") announced that a public company agreed to pay $35 million to settle charges of, among other things, violations of the whistleblower protection rule.1...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Whistleblower Newsletter Q2 2022

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Whistleblower Developments is a periodic report covering significant cases, decisions, proposals, and legislation related to whistleblower statutes and how they may impact your business. Recent developments include:...more

Wiley Rein LLP

A Client Alert About Client Alerts – SEC Cites Alerts In Issuing $400,000 Fine Related to Whistleblower Protections

Wiley Rein LLP on

What: On June 22, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled charges against The Brink's Company (Brinks) for requiring employees to sign confidentiality agreements that prohibited disclosure of any financial...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

SEC Fires Another Warning Shot on Confidentiality Agreements that Violate Whistleblower Provisions

The SEC brought an enforcement action against The Brink’s Company for using confidentiality agreements that the SEC alleged violated Exchange Act Rule 21F-17. That rule prohibits any person from taking any action to impede an...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

District Court Endorses SEC’s “Shadow Insider Trading” Theory – An Analysis of the Court’s Decision and its Potential Implications...

As previously reported, in August 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint in SEC v. Panuwat, initiating the first enforcement action seeking to proscribe as prohibited insider trading the practice...more

Proskauer - Corporate Defense and Disputes

Second Circuit Upholds Insider-Trading Conviction and Clarifies Scope of Requisite Fiduciary Relationship

The Second Circuit yesterday affirmed the insider-trading conviction of a doctor who, in breach of a confidentiality agreement, had traded on nonpublic information about a drug trial in which he had been participating.  The...more

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

SEC Accuses Issuer and CEO of Violating Whistleblower Protection Laws to Silence Investor Complaints

On Nov. 4, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed an amended complaint against Collectors Café and its CEO, Mykalai Kontilai, to add charges against defendants for alleged violations of whistleblower...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

[Podcast]: Key Contractual Provisions for Employers to Incorporate in Documents with Confidentiality Covenants

In this episode of The Proskauer Brief, Kate Napalkova, special employee benefits and executive compensation counsel, and associate Oleg Zakatov discuss potential pitfalls that lurk in employment agreements and other employee...more

Goodwin

Update: Another SEC Enforcement Action on Whistleblower Waivers and Releases

Goodwin on

Summary - Earlier this month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its second significant enforcement action against an employer based on confidentiality and release provisions that the SEC asserts...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

SEC Targets Employment Agreements Requiring Waiver of Whistleblower Awards

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower continues to examine employee severance, settlement and confidentiality agreements for language that might chill reporting of securities violations to the SEC and other regulators. The...more

Sherman & Howard L.L.C.

Public Companies to Revise Employee Confidentiality and Severance Provisions

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued two Cease and Desist Orders that dramatically change the landscape for employee contractual confidentiality provisions, as well as for employee waiver and release...more

Snell & Wilmer

Standard Severance Agreements May Need to Be Revised

Snell & Wilmer on

Many employers offer severance agreements to departing employees which, at least in part, are designed to protect the employer from disclosures of confidential information and from any future claims or recovery by the...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

SEC Continues To Scrutinize Separation Agreements

On August 16, 2016, the SEC announced that Health Net Inc. (Company) agreed to pay a $340,000 penalty to settle charges that it violated Rule 21F-17 by using severance agreements that allegedly prohibited its employees from...more

Dechert LLP

SEC Continues to Target Employer Agreements Restricting Whistleblower Rights

Dechert LLP on

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) recently announced the settlement of two cease-and-desist proceedings against employers alleged to have unlawfully restricted employees’ rights to engage...more

Proskauer - Whistleblower Defense

SEC Penalizes Company For Severance Language Purportedly Impeding Complaints

On August 10, 2016, the SEC announced that BlueLinx Holdings Inc. (Company) is settling charges that it violated Rule 21F-17 by requiring outgoing employees to waive whistleblower bounty awards in connection with severance...more

Blank Rome LLP

Beware of Confidentiality Agreements with Employees; Make Sure They Don’t Stifle Whistleblowing

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On April 1, 2015, the SEC announced its first enforcement action against a company for utilizing language in a confidentiality agreement which could discourage whistleblowing....more

Holland & Knight LLP

In-House Counsel Risk SEC Enforcement for Some Confidentiality Agreements - Following Best Practices as Part of a Comprehensive...

Holland & Knight LLP on

Confidentiality agreements are boilerplate in many legal departments, but they shouldn't be. In-house counsel need to review all currently effective confidentiality agreements with anyone who could potentially be a...more

Brooks Pierce

Three Thoughts about the SEC’s First “Pretaliation” Case

Brooks Pierce on

I was on a flight last Wednesday when the SEC released the first of what whistleblower chief Sean McKessy has dubbed “pretaliation” cases against KBR, Inc. When I landed I had several emails from colleagues, asking, “Did you...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

SEC Fines KBR $130,000 for Using Employee Confidentiality Agreement that Violates Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Protections

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has brought its first-ever enforcement action against a company for using language in confidentiality agreements that prohibits employees from speaking with the SEC without prior...more

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