‘A New Day Has Arrived': Continued Focus On Individual Wrongdoing

The "Yates Memo," which instructs United States prosecutors to focus on individual wrongdoers when investigating or prosecuting alleged corporate misconduct, garnered significant attention from the compliance community, executives, directors, and their counsel when it was released last year. Many observers have suggested that the enunciation of this policy shifted the playing field for corporate defendants. That was the verdict of a recent panel of in-house counsel and former Department of Justice chiefs reviewing the Yates Memo's impact over the last year. Although Canadian governments have not adopted a similar policy, companies, executives, and directors in Canada should take notice of these developments and be ready to tackle the challenges that they will face if an employee is targeted by law enforcement.