On August 6, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted an employer’s motion for summary judgment on a SOX whistleblower retaliation counterclaim, holding that the former employee failed to...more
On July 26, 2024, the SEC announced an award of more than $37 million to a whistleblower who first reported misconduct internally and subsequently provided information and assistance that led to a successful SEC enforcement...more
A recent California district court addressed the question of whether, for insurance coverage purposes, a SOX whistleblower claim is a “securities claim,” and answered that question in the affirmative. Skye Bioscience v....more
On June 7, 2022, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, relying on recent ARB decisions, held that a plaintiff who lived and worked for a Canadian subsidiary of a US company could not avail...more
7/18/2022
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Foreign Workers ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Reporting ,
Multinationals ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On March 29, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida held that in order to engage in protected conduct under the False Claims Act (“FCA”), a plaintiff must specifically suspect that their employer...more
6/16/2022
/ Adverse Employment Action ,
False Billing ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Fraud ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Reporting ,
Opioid ,
Pain Management ,
Protected Activity ,
Retaliation ,
Whistleblowers
On October 28, 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a bill dramatically expanding New York’s whistleblower statute, New York Labor Law § 740, which is scheduled to take effect on January 26, 2022. ...more
On June 29, 2020, the Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) upheld the dismissal of a whistleblower retaliation complaint under Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“SOX”) for failure to file within the 180-day statutory...more
8/5/2020
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Review Board ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equitable Tolling ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) held that a complaint about a theoretical violation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010...more
On September 19, 2019, the Second Circuit affirmed a New York District Court’s order compelling arbitration of a whistleblower retaliation claim under the Dodd-Frank Act. Daly v. Citigroup Inc., et al., No. 18-665....more
On July 18, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, holding that the Plaintiff did not have...more
8/7/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Cybersecurity ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Investigations ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Summary Judgment ,
Termination ,
Whistleblowers
This is an update on our previous blog posts regarding the Erhart v. BofI Holding, Inc. case.
We previously reported in October 2017 and March 2017 on a whistleblower litigation brought by Charles Erhart, a former Bank of...more
On April 29, 2019, Assemblyman Michael Benedetto introduced Assembly Bill A7384, which would amend and significantly expand New York’s whistleblower statute, N.Y.L.L. §§ 740, 741. The identical Senate version of this bill,...more
On February 26, 2019, the Ninth Circuit affirmed much of a jury’s approximately $11M verdict finding that a former general counsel was discharged in retaliation for reporting alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”)...more
3/7/2019
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Reporting ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On December 21, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California stayed a plaintiff’s whistleblower retaliation claim under SOX (which was not subject to mandatory arbitration) while granting a motion...more
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York recently granted a motion for summary judgment against a Plaintiff claiming retaliatory blacklisting under SOX, holding that a former employer’s policy of refusing...more
4/2/2018
/ Blacklist ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Protected Activity ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Summary Judgment ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On February 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that an individual is not covered by the anti-retaliation provision of the Dodd-Frank Act unless they have provided information regarding a violation of law to...more
2/26/2018
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Digital Realty Trust Inc v Somers ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Internal Reporting ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On July 6, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed a whistleblower claim after determining that the plaintiff did not qualify as a whistleblower under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform...more
On April 28, 2017, the United States Department of Labor Administrative Review Board (“ARB”) allowed a whistleblower retaliation claim under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) to proceed even though the...more
6/8/2017
/ Administrative Appeals ,
Administrative Review Board ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
EMTALA ,
Health Care Violations ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Mental Health ,
Nurses ,
Pleadings ,
Retaliation ,
Reversal ,
Telehealth ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On May 11, 2017, the Northern District of New York applied the Second Circuit’s standard for evaluating a Dodd-Frank retaliation claim in response to a motion to dismiss under F.R.C.P. Rule 12(b)(6). The court denied the...more
5/25/2017
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Rule 12(b)(6) ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Reporting ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Objective Unreasonableness Standard ,
Popular ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Reasonableness Factors ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Whistleblowers ,
Wrongful Termination
Recently, a California federal court denied the defendant–employer’s motion for a new trial, upholding the jury’s $7.96 million verdict finding that the Company terminated its former general counsel for reporting alleged...more
5/23/2017
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Bio-Rad Laboratories ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Reporting ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Motion for JMOL ,
Motion For New Trial ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Whistleblower Protection Policies ,
Whistleblowers
On March 21, 2017, the Northern District of Texas dismissed a former employee’s whistleblower retaliation claim on the ground that her allegations of fraud were too far removed from potentially harming the shareholders of a...more
3/28/2017
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Dismissals ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Failure To State A Claim ,
Fraud ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internal Reporting ,
Material Misrepresentation ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Shareholders ,
Whistleblowers
On March 8, 2017, a split three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a Northern District of California decision declining to dismiss a Dodd-Frank whistleblower retaliation claim because the plaintiff did...more
3/9/2017
/ Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Failure to Report ,
Internal Communications ,
Retaliation ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Whistleblowers
A former employee of the upscale outdoor furniture designer and manufacturer Brown Jordan recently failed in his bid to pursue whistleblower retaliation claims against the company and also found himself liable for snooping on...more
On March 28, 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed an amicus brief in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by a former in-house attorney against Vanguard Group (the “Company”). The case is Danon v....more
4/4/2016
/ Amicus Briefs ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Internal Reporting ,
Protected Activity ,
Retaliation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Termination ,
Vanguard ,
Whistleblowers ,
Young Lawyers
The Eastern District of Tennessee recently dismissed whistleblower claims, finding that the Plaintiff was not entitled to protection under Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, or the False Claims Act (“FCA”). Verble v. Morgan Stanley...more