News & Analysis as of

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Enforcement Actions Employment Contract

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

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Companies Subject to U.S. Jurisdiction Should not Restrict Personnel from Being SEC Whistleblowers, or Receiving SEC Whistleblower...

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SEC rules prohibit taking “any action” to impede an individual from communicating directly with the SEC about a possible securities law violation, including by enforcing, or threatening to enforce, a confidentiality...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Are Whistleblower Protection Violations the New SEC Sweep?

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to investigate companies for including language in their employment and separation agreements or retail client settlement agreements that potentially discourages...more

Perkins Coie

Whistleblower Protection Remains SEC Priority

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Last week, the SEC announced settled charges against seven public companies for use of agreements that the SEC alleges have provisions that violate the whistleblower protection rule. Coincidentally, I recently recorded a...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

SEC Announces Settlements with Seven Public Companies for Violations of Exchange Act Whistleblower Protections in Employee and...

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The SEC has begun to bring enforcement actions against companies whose employment and client agreements could appear to infringe on the right to report cases in violation of Section 21f-17(a) of the Exchange Act. On September...more

BCLP

SEC Again Cracks Down on Companies That Restrict Whistleblowers

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As discussed in our December 15, 2023 client alert, the SEC has waged an aggressive effort to enforce alleged violations of the whistleblower protection rule.  On September 9, 2024, the SEC announced settled charges resulting...more

Jenner & Block

Client Alert: Key Takeaways from the SEC’s Latest Enforcement Sweep Regarding Violations of the Whistleblower Protections Rule

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Earlier this week, the SEC announced an enforcement sweep charging seven public companies with violating the whistleblower protections rule in various employment-related agreements. These charges reflect the SEC’s continuing...more

Epstein Becker & Green

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission Cracks Down on Employer Non-Disclosure Provisions

Epstein Becker & Green on

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has now joined the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in taking a stand against broad non-disclosure provisions in employment agreements....more

Perkins Coie

February Tip of the Month: SEC Targets Whistleblower Restrictions in Employment-Related Agreements

Perkins Coie on

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has signaled that it will take aggressive action against employers who, by way of employment-related agreements, restrict, prohibit, or otherwise discourage employees from...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

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

SEC Continues to Police Confidentiality Provisions for Theoretical Whistleblower Suppression

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) levied an $18 million fine against J.P. Morgan Securities, LLC (“JPMS”) for allegedly including overbroad release provisions in settlement agreements. This marks the continuation...more

BakerHostetler

Employers Beware: Broad Confidentiality and Severance Clauses May Violate Whistleblower Protection Laws

BakerHostetler on

Employers should check their confidentiality and severance agreements for a common oversight that, for some, is becoming a costly error. Recent enforcement activity by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Rule...more

Thomas Fox - Compliance Evangelist

Pre-Taliation Continues to Rear It’s Ugly Head

DE Shaw, a prominent financial services firm, recently settled a retaliation case with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a staggering $10 million. It was settled via an Administrative Order. This settlement...more

Littler

SEC Continues to Attack Non-Disclosure Agreements and Personnel Policy Provisions that Could Impede Employees from Reporting...

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The SEC continues to review non-disclosure agreements and other confidential business information provisions of publicly traded companies to ensure whistleblowers are not restricted from freely communicating with the agency...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

Recent Whistleblower Enforcement Actions Highlight SEC Focus On Employee Agreements

Womble Bond Dickinson on

In September, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced the settlement of three enforcement actions for violations of SEC whistleblower protection laws. In the actions, the SEC asserted that the...more

Holland & Knight LLP

SEC Settlements Over Whistleblower Protections Pile Up

Holland & Knight LLP on

As the SEC closed its fiscal year, it filed three separate enforcement actions against companies for purported violations of Rule 21F-17 under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, which prohibits persons from impeding...more

Goodwin

Employers Are Strongly Encouraged to Revisit Whistleblower Protection Language in Agreements and Policies in Light of Recent Legal...

Goodwin on

On Friday, September 29, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) issued an order that censured D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P., a registered investment advisor in New York, and assessed a civil penalty of $10,000,000...more

Goodwin

Delaware Court of Chancery Holds Buzzfeed Not Bound by Pre-SPAC Merger Employment Agreements

Goodwin on

On October 28, 2022, Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the declaratory action brought by Buzzfeed Inc. against 91 current and former employees is not bound by arbitration provisions...more

Stinson - Corporate & Securities Law Blog

SEC Finds Employee Manual Violates Dodd-Frank

In a recently settled SEC enforcement action, the defendant asked employees to sign an acknowledgement, upon hire and on an annual basis, that they had received, read, and would adhere to the defendant’s employee manual. ...more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Proskauer Delivers Webinar on Settling Employment Claims

On December 12, Proskauer partners Allan Bloom, Elise Bloom, and Harris Mufson delivered a webinar focused on how recent developments in the law impact the ground rules and key strategies for settlement in four distinct areas...more

Snell & Wilmer

The SEC Expands Enforcement Program Based Upon Standard Corporate Separation Agreements

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We have alerted you on two prior occasions regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) imposing substantial fines and other penalties based solely on “boilerplate” language commonly found in corporate severance...more

NAVEX

Modern Whistleblower Retaliation Risk Require a Modern Framework

NAVEX on

If compliance officers ever needed one more sign about the importance of anti-retaliation programs, it arrived on September 29, 2016. On that day, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC ) fined a company that makes...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

SEC Continues Crackdown on Employer Whistleblower Restrictions

Takeaways: - SEC is targeting contract terms that appear to restrict contact with the SEC or require employee whistleblowers to waive monetary recoveries. - Express disclosure of these rights in severance...more

NAVEX

The Difference Between Being Right and Doing Right

NAVEX on

Not long ago I wrote about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent enforcement actions against companies that include pretaliation clauses in their employment contracts. I posted the article online, and one compliance...more

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense - August 2015

Are the Circuits A-Splitting? The Ninth Circuit Declines to Follow the Second Circuit's Insider Trading Decision in U.S. v. Newman - Why it matters: On July 6, 2015, the Ninth Circuit in U.S. v. Salman declined to...more

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