dealing with compliance issue with minimum career damage

HitmanH · Post by **HitmanH** » Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:44 pm

The lady (Sarah Keeble) who headed up the Employment department at Olswang is actually now at Miscon de Reya. They're both very good firms - and either will do a great job (I know 1-2 people at both).

Olswang previously was a problem (not for them) as representing an awful lot of the banks - and they're not really set-up to take on individual cases - so can be difficult to get going (but once done all OK).

gc · Post by gc » Tue Oct 16, 2012 12:49 am

I just stumbled on this on LinkedIn. I don't know if it's any good or if it can be useful....

Another lawyer

Tradenator · Post by **Tradenator** » Tue Oct 16, 2012 10:17 am

I would suggest that you also try to get some sort of positive reference letter from your employer (in writing on letterhead if possible). If there is a colleague or someone else there who would provide a good reference for you, then go to them now while you can. Maybe your boss would do this in exchange for you going out the door quietly? Your reputation in the eyes of your next employer is very important right now.

quantz · Post by **quantz** » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:36 am

interestingly, I have a friend dealing with the exact same issue. (ie. discovered and reported major compliance issue, received immediate dismissal as retaliation.) it seems in both cases that you and he hold major leverage against the employer, eg. you can go directly to the regulators or clients with your information, although in your case it's a bit different as the damaged clients are small. i'm not sure the best way to use this leverage in practice, but it sounds like you definitely have grounds for hiring a lawyer and angling for a nice settlement. Wink

polysena · Post by **polysena** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:51 pm

[edit double post]

polysena · Post by **polysena** » Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:51 pm

Any update on your case Braintree.. how are you coping?Poly

kc11415 · Post by **kc11415** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:27 am

Perhaps a bit late to be replying, but one person's 2 cents worth.

Usual disclaimers apply, and then some. I am not a lawyer.

I commend your stance, but you're probably realizing there are few optimal paths from here, only minimization of negative outcomes.

For starters, its been this person's experience that legal compliance teams of corporate in-house counsel are staffed by lawyers whose earlier careers tended towards:

a) partner-track wash-out associates from law firms.

b) non-partner-track associates seeking to get off the hamster wheel at law firms.

c) mommy-track, also seeking to get off the hamster wheel.

These people come from the paper-pushing back-office areas of law firms, not front office.

Many have their experience slanted towards contract law, tort law, regulatory law.

Most don't have much experience or interest in practice of criminal law.

Some seem inclined to deliberately remain ignorant of criminal law in the naive belief that plausible deniability might be a defense. Usefulness of plausible deniability is quite different between the civil litigation vs. criminal prosecution realms.

These don't tend to be former government prosecutors.

At most, they might be potentially lower-tier government regulatory attorneys, but probably not.

Point of saying all the above, don't assume that inhouse compliance staff are going to advocate a path away from violating criminal law.

When I was forced into a situation of needing to become interested in such topics I started looking for published accounts of others. What I found was not encouraging. You do not want to become known as a whistleblower. Whistleblowers get paid lip-service by hollywood and grand-standing politicians, but inevitably become untouchable in their existing industry.

That does not mean you should remain complicit in the misconduct. People assuming they are skirting gray areas often don't realize when they stray unambiguously into the criminal realm. For instance, it is often necessary to create a paper trail of corporate records as justification in case a matter later gets civilly litigated. However, there are some jurisdictions in which falsification of business records can be either a misdemeanor or a felony, i.e. New York or Delaware. For someone thinking that "business records" means the accounting books, its actually much broader than that. The Reyes case involved a prison guard convicted for this when he signed a log book claiming to be in one building when he was actually in another.

Additionally, don't assume that going to government prosecutors is going to get responsive attention. If the case you're involved in does not happen to match the current priorities of the government agency, you might be met with lame rationalizations to excuse their inaction.

Walk away as discretely and as quietly as you can.

Losing a job is not the most adverse possible outcome.