You can talk all you want about the importance of “tone-at-the-top.” People use that term all the time and everyone nods their heads in agreement. But what is the “top”? Is it the CEO? Is it the senior executives? Is it the corporate board? Is it the Audit/Compliance Committee? In my mind, there is only one mountain top in a company. The buck ends at...
Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 12 Noon EST Top 10 Internal Investigations Problems Sign Up Here Companies face significant risks when conducting an internal investigation involving serious allegations of misconduct. An internal investigator must know how to identify and resolve significant issues that may come up during the investigation. The investigator must be aware of the surrounding risks and conduct an internal investigation which is credible...
People are good at complaining. People often say to themselves, “Things are not going my way,” and they love to feel sorry for themselves. People who are professional victims are toxic. Why? Professional victims gain a sense of existence from their own suffering, rather than taking responsibility for their actions. What does this have to do with ethics and compliance? Believe it or not,...
If you want to inflame a discussion between general counsels and chief compliance officers, just try to develop a consensus on the importance of attorney-client privilege. A GC and a CCO will mouth the right words – of course, there are situations where we need to preserve the attorney-client privilege. We all agree on that. As always, the devil is in the details. Let’s start...
Evan Lee, an Associate at The Volkov Law Group, joins us for a post on the new anti-human trafficking rules. Evan can be reached at [email protected]. His bio is here. Consistent with the US Government’s zero tolerance policy concerning human trafficking, a cadre of government agencies recently published a final rule amending the current Federal Acquisition Regulations provisions on human trafficking. Taking effect March 2,...
Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. — Mark Twain Years ago (seems like eons), I wrote a column lamenting lawyers and compliance professionals who operate by telling their clients “No.” Of course, there are situations when you have to say “No.” But there are too many professionals who confuse providing advice with saying “No.”...
Companies and CCOs are starting to get the message – the best and most effective control against code and legal violations is a culture of ethics and compliance. Those are high-minded ideals for high-level executives. The C-Suite likes to embrace these ideals but the C-Suite needs to recognize a couple of realities – a culture of ethics and compliance does not occur overnight and does...
FCPA enforcement agencies had a big year in 2014, collecting nearly $1.6 billion in fines and penalties; Criminal enforcement against individuals continued and more indictments are expected early in 2015; FCPA settlements reflect increased focus on internal controls, medium and small-sized companies, and gifts, meals, entertainment and travel expenses; Continued FCPA enforcement highlights the importance of implementing effective anti-corruption compliance strategies, and need for robust...
One of my favorite SNL skits from years ago was John Belushi as Henry Kissing, singing “Getting to Know You” with his arms around Menachem Begin and Yasser Arafat – a true classic. The same can be said for the compliance world – “Getting to Know You” is an absolute must for five important corporate functions. Continuing with my obsession to define an “effective” ethics...
The golden ring for every chief compliance officer is an “effective” ethics and compliance program. But if you ask a CCO if the company’s compliance program is ”effective,” they will bow their heads and reluctantly admit, “No, we need to . . . [fill in the blank].” CCOs tend to be perfectionists. It comes with the mindset and the territory. They demand perfection from others...
