Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco gave the keynote address at the American Bar Association’s 36th National Institute on White Collar Crime in Miami this week, and summarized five areas of DOJ focus for consideration by corporations and their counsel. Those five points announced by Monaco included some changes going forward:
- Companies need to actively review their compliance programs to ensure they adequately monitor for and remediate misconduct — or else it is going to cost them down the line.
- For clients facing investigations, starting now, DOJ will review the entirety of a company’s record, and not the criminal, civil, or regulatory record discretely, or as Monaco stated, “not just a sliver of that record.”
- For clients cooperating with the government, they need to identify all individuals involved in the misconduct — not just those substantially involved — and produce all non-privileged information about those individuals’ involvement.
- For clients negotiating resolutions, there is no default presumption against corporate monitors. That decision about a monitor will be made by the facts and circumstances of each case.
- Monaco concluded that, “[l]ooking to the future, this is a start — and not the end — of this administration’s actions to better combat corporate crime.”
Our experience and resources provide a solid foundation that allows us to help you and your business to address these changes and bolster your compliance programs now, to help you adequately monitor for and remediate any misconduct, and to keep you informed of the administration’s requirements as they evolve in the future. Please contact us with any questions and concerns about DOJ’s new objectives and focus and to discuss how we can help you create a compliance plan built to stand up to federal scrutiny.
We are available to address your individual circumstances and questions.
Richard Davis 205-868-6044 or rdavis@starneslaw.com
Jay Ezelle 205-868-6025 or jezelle@starneslaw.com
This information is not intended to provide legal advice, and no legal or business decision should be based on its content. No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. Read full disclaimer.
