White Collar Roundup - November 2014

DOJ's 10 Hallmarks of a Good Compliance Program

In a speech at an ethics and compliance conference in Atlanta, GA, Leslie Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division, articulated 10 hallmarks of a good internal compliance program. Although the hallmarks were somewhat predictable (number one is "tone at the top"), Caldwell set forth several examples of actions to avoid (firing low-level employees but not their bosses, who may have directed the conduct) and actions to embrace (assigning responsibility to senior executives for implementing and overseeing a company's compliance program). She also gave suggestions on how a company can cooperate fully with the government, noting, for example, that withholding documents based on a broad reading of foreign data protection laws is likely to prevent full cooperation credit.