Karin Sweigart rejoins us for another interesting posting on employment compliance issues. Karin can be contacted at [email protected]. It is estimated about half of the United States’ 1.5 million internships a year are unpaid, a number that may go up due to changes in the Department of Labor’s (DOL) rules governing unpaid internships. Implemented in 2018, the updated rules provide for-profit companies more flexibility to...
Compliance officers have a difficult job. So why are so many people interested in joining the profession? At bottom, compliance professionals are inspirational professionals and inspired by their mission. Compliance officers have a mission – to embed and promote a culture of ethics and compliance. When you boil it down, every compliance officer is dedicated to two specific missions: to embed and protect its culture,...
I have a tendency to sound like a “broken record” (an odd phrase in these days of digital music). The government’s most powerful enforcement tool continues to be – drumroll please, the False Claims Act. The government “always” (or in most cases) wins. Defendants are rarely willing to risk exclusion from valuable federal healthcare programs or defense contracts. When the government brings a case, the...
Karin Sweigart, a Senior Associate at The Volkov Law Group, rejoins us for a posting on employees and political activity. Karin can be reached at [email protected]. It is October in an election year, and political tensions are running high. If political discourse in your place of business has been heated, it may be a good time for a refresher on laws governing what private employers...
Webinar: The State of Third-Party Risk Management in 2018 Date: Tuesday, October 16 Time: 1:00 PM/ET/10:00 AM PT Duration: 60 minutes Sign Up HERE Over half of organizations leave themselves open to risk with an ineffective or non-existent third-party risk management program. That’s shocking given the damage a third party can inflict! To improve or get started on your third-party risk management program, join this...
Believe it or not, but companies are still struggling with third-party risk management systems. I know this sounds hyper-critical but many companies continue to hang onto paper due diligence systems (sometimes with or without a SharePoint platform to store third-party due diligence documentation). An even smaller percentage of companies are automating their due diligence programs, a basic requirement for all companies with a minimum number...
The United Technologies FCPA settlement underscored, once again, the harm to a company when lawyers fail to do their job. As outlined in the SEC settlement, an in-house attorney at Otis Elevator was required to review and approve a contract with a third-party, where a cursory due diligence review would have uncovered major red flags. The in-house attorney reviewed the contract without inquiring about the...
As we continue our efforts to improve and grow our podcast, we have recently connected the Corruption, Crime & Compliance podcast feed to Spotify! You’ll now be able to listen to all of the latest episodes right from the Spotify app. Please click here to access our Spotify page. Be sure to listen to our latest episode on how to implement an effective and reliable...
Assume you are under the influence of a truth serum; does you company have a contract management system? Some will say yes; I suspect most will say no. My question is why not? Lawyers love contracts. Most business people see the value of a contract and will comply with a requirement that a deal will require a contract in order to move forward. But there...
Companies have definitely matured in the development and implementation of their ethics and compliance programs. Whether the pace has been rapid enough or is too slow, that is a debatable issue. A good litmus test for a mature ethics and compliance program is whether the company assesses and mitigates its C-Suite risks. Over and over again, companies fall under government scrutiny because of misconduct in...
