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⭐CONFLICTED COUNSELORS: RETALIATION PROTECTIONS FOR ATTORNEY-WHISTLEBLOWERS IN AN INCONSISTENT REGULATORY REGIME. Jennifer M.
CONFLICTED COUNSELORS: RETALIATION PROTECTIONS FOR ATTORNEY-WHISTLEBLOWERS IN AN INCONSISTENT REGULATORY REGIME. Jennifer M.
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1 Pacella, Draft: Do not cite without permission of the author. CONFLICTED COUNSELORS: RETALIATION PROTECTIONS FOR ATTORNEY-WHISTLEBLOWERS IN AN INCONSISTENT REGULATORY REGIME Jennifer M. Pacella* Abstract Attorneys, especially in-house counsel, are subject to retaliation by employers in much the same way as traditional whistleblowers, often experiencing retaliation and loss of livelihood for reporting instances of wrongdoing about their clients. Although attorney-whistleblowing undoubtedly invokes ethical concerns, attorneys who appear and practice before the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) are required by federal law to act as internal whistleblowers under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act ( SOX ) and report evidence of material violations of the law within the organizations that they represent. An attorney s failure to comply with these obligations will result in SEC-imposed civil penalties and disciplinary action. Recent federal case law, however, holds that whistleblowers who report violations internally within their organizations are not eligible for the robust retaliation protections available under the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ( Dodd-Frank ) and must report to the SEC to be protected. Given that external reporting by attorneys would run contrary to professional ethical rules in a number of states, lawyers currently find themselves caught in a catch-22 making it exceedingly difficult to comply with the conflicting regulatory regimes to which they are held. This Article will address this emerging problem by considering a question that no court has yet addressed whether the SOX attorney-reporting rules preempt conflicting state law and will propose amendments to such rules to clarify when external reporting is appropriate. This Article will also consider a state-based solution to this conflict adopting a modified version of Model Rule 1.13, the ethical rule governing the behavior of attorneys when they represent organizations and are called to act as whistleblowers. This Article will also contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussion of new governance approaches to regulation by placing attorney-whistleblowers in this context and considering how their gatekeeping role ensures regulatory compliance within the organizations that they represent *Professor Jennifer Pacella is an Assistant Professor of Law at the City University of New York (CUNY), Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College in New York City. She is also an adjunct professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School. The author would like to thank Bruce Green, Sung Hui Kim, Alex Long, Richard Moberly, and Jay Weiser for their helpful comments on this article and Sean Kannengieser for his research assistance.2 Pacella, Draft: Do not cite without permission of the author. CONFLICTED COUNSELORS: RETALIATION PROTECTIONS FOR ATTORNEY-WHISTLEBLOWERS IN AN INCONSISTENT REGULATORY REGIME INTRODUCTION...2 I. Attorney-Whistleblowers 7 A. Lawyers as Targets of Retaliation 7 B. Statutory Protections for Attorney-Whistleblowers...15 II. Inadequacies of Retaliation Protections for Attorney-Whistleblowers under Federal Whistleblowing Programs..18 A. The SOX Whistleblower Program and Attorney-Reporting Rules...18 B. The Whistleblower Program of Dodd-Frank and Judicial Interpretations 23 III. Conflicting Regulatory Regimes 27 A. Conflicts Among Attorney Ethical Requirements 27 B. The Question of Preemption ) Statutory Preemption.35 2) Administrative Preemption 40 IV. Proposed Solutions and Considerations.43 A. Clarity to External Reporting Trigger ) Scope of Covered Attorneys..47 B. State-Based Solution to Inconsistent Reporting Requirements 52 C. New Governance Framework 59 Conclusion.62 13 INTRODUCTION The year 2014 was tagged, The Year of the Whistleblower, representing an era in which whistleblowers privy to inside information about their employers misconduct have become empowered to remedy violations of the law. 1 Despite recent trends heralding whistleblowers as essential players in effective compliance and moving away from negative connotations like snitch and traitor, 2 whistleblowers are still commonly the victims of retaliation for their reporting. 3 Recently, it has been said that retaliation against whistleblowers [is at an] all-time high, both on the rise nationally and a problem at companies that outwardly appear committed to ethics and integrity. 4 Retaliation against whistleblowers commonly emerges as loss of employment, ostracism, alienation, or blacklisting from one s industry and results in both devastating financial and psychological effects for the whistleblower. 5 Such 1 Terence Healy, 2014 The Year of the Whistleblower, FORBES (Jan. 8, 2014), theemploymentbeat/2014/01/08/2014-the-year-of-the-whistleblower/ (warning employers of the perils of failing to address employee whistleblower concerns in light of increased regulatory whistleblower protections); Savaria Harris & Mitka Baker, Lessons from the Year of the Whistleblower: A changing regulatory regime, INSIDE COUNSEL (Jan. 16, 2015), insidecounsel.com/2015/01/16/lessons-from-the-year-of-the-whistleblower-a-chang (describing the rise in government programs that protect and incentivize whistleblowers across various industries). 2 See id.; see Jonathan Macey, Getting the Word Out About Fraud: A Theoretical Analysis of Whistleblowing and Insider Trading, 105 MICH. L. REV. 1899, 1940 n. 53 (2007) (describing the negative images typically used to describe whistleblowers); see also Yuval Feldman & Orly Lobel, The Incentives Matrix: The Comparative Effectiveness of Rewards, Liabilities, Duties, and Protections for Reporting Illegality, 88 TEX. L. REV. 1151, 1159 (2010) (describing how the media has reshaped its view of whistleblowers as heroic, signifying a move away from the traditional view in popular culture portraying whistleblowers as lowlife[s] who betray[] a sacred trust largely for personal gain. ). 3 National Business Ethics Survey of the U.S. Workforce, ETHICS RESOURCE CENTER, 13 (2013), available at A recent study by the Ethics Resource Center polled and reported thousands of employees, noting that retaliation against whistleblowers is a widespread problem and that about 22% (or one in five) of those who report misconduct experience retaliation. 4 Stephen Kohn, Retaliation against Whistleblowers at All-Time High, NAT L WHISTLEBLOWERS LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUC. FUND (Dec. 10, 2014), (citing Retaliation: When Whistleblowers Become Victims, ETHICS RESOURCE CENTER 2 (2012)), available at 5 Geoffrey Christopher Rapp, Beyond Protection: Invigorating Incentives for Sarbanes-Oxley Corporate and Securities Fraud Whistleblowers, 87 B.U. L. REV. 91, (2007) (describing the many disincentives to blowing the whistle); James Fanto, Whistleblowing and the Public Director: Countering Corporate Inner Circles, 83 OR. L. 24 retaliation occurs despite research showing that most whistleblowers report only internally to their employers and superiors, never venturing from the four walls of their places of employment to reveal information. 6 Attorney-whistleblowers, especially in-house counsel, are no strangers to such negative reactions when they themselves report internally on their clients misconduct. Although attorneys tend not to fit the mold of the typical whistleblower, this group of professionals is required by federal law to blow the whistle internally, or up-the-ladder, on organizational clients. In 2002, Congress mandated the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) under Section 307 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act ( SOX ) to issue rules establishing minimum standards of professional conduct for lawyers who appear and practice before the SEC, requiring attorneys to report evidence of material violations of securities law, breaches of fiduciary duty, or other violations by their corporate clients to the chief legal counsel or chief executive officer, and, if no appropriate response is taken, up-the-ladder to the board of directors. 7 Congress was prompted to enact this mandate in the wake of scandals like Enron and WorldCom that begged the question of where were the lawyers? 8 as clients committed devastating levels of fraud. The REV. 435, 438, , 460 (2004) (describing the common inner circle or group rejection of the whistleblower, who threatens groupthink mentalities, causing retaliation). 6 Christopher M. Matthews, Most Whisteblowers Report Internally, Study Finds, WALL ST. J., May 30, 2012, available at (citing a survey of the Ethics Resource Center that only 2% of employee-whistleblowers reported outside of the companies for which they work); Gerard Sinzdak, An Analysis of Current Whistleblower Laws: Defending A More Flexible Approach to Reporting Requirements, 96 CAL. L. REV. 1633, 1652 (2008); see also Terry Morehead Dworkin & Elletta Sangrey Callahan, Internal Whistleblowing: Protecting the Interests of the Employee, the Organization, and Society, 29 AM. BUS. L.J. 267, 281 n. 71 (1991) (noting that most whistleblowers first report internally) U.S.C Alternatively, an attorney may report such information to a qualified legal compliance committee if present, a board committee consisting of at least one member of the issuer s audit committee and has adopted written procedures to receive and consider reports of evidence of material violations. See 17 C.F.R (k), 205.3(c). 8 Stephen M. Bainbridge, Whistleblowers, Lawyers, and the Costs of Misconduct, in COMPLETE GUIDE TO SARBANES-OXLEY: UNDERSTANDING HOW SARBANES-OXLEY AFFECTS YOUR BUSINESS 109 (2007). 35 SEC issued these Part 205 Rules, as they will be named herein, in 2003, imposing civil penalties and disciplinary authority on attorneys who fail to adhere to the reporting rules. 9 Junior attorneys appearing and practicing before the SEC are also subject to the rules and fulfill their duties by reporting material violations to their supervisory attorneys, who must then comply with the up-the-ladder reporting requirements. 10 The Part 205 Rules also allow permissive disclosures under which attorneys may reveal to the SEC, without the issuer-client s consent, confidential information pertaining to the attorney s representation of the client in certain instances. 11 As such, attorneys may provide the SEC with information about their clients to the extent [they] reasonably believe necessary to prevent an issuer from committing a material violation of the law likely to cause substantial The legislative history of Section 307 of SOX acknowledges the fault of lawyers in such scandals: [E]xecutives and accountants do not work alone. Anybody who works in corporate America knows that wherever you see corporate executives and accountants working, lawyers are virtually always there looking over their shoulder. If executives and/or accountants are breaking the law, you can be sure that part of the problem is that the lawyers who are there and involved are not doing their job. 148 CONG. REC. S (July 10, 2002) (statement of Sen. John Edwards). See also Sara B. Smith, Sarbanes- Oxley, Section 307 The Price of Accountability: How Will Section 307 Affect the Role of the Corporate Attorney? 107 W. Va. L. Rev. 901, 915 (2005) (noting that Section 307 of SOX holds lawyers accountable for reporting violations in the hope that a future Enron will not occur). See also Thomas G. Bost, Corporate Lawyers After the Big Quake: The Conceptual Fault Line in the Professional Duty of Confidentiality, J. BUS. ENTREPRENEURSHIP & L. 335, 388 (2008) (Bost notes that the Part 205 Rules are based on the implicit premise that even though the lawyer s primary allegiance is to his client, he is accountable to a significant degree to those third parties who have legitimate interests in being protected against the client s misdeeds. ) Bost takes the view that the SEC may have disregarded the optimum vision of lawyering in adopting these rules, which is to allow the lawyer to establish the necessary degree of trust to serve as a counselor or advisor for the client C.F.R Disciplinary action by the SEC may include an attorney being censured or the denial, either temporarily or permanently, of the privilege of appearing or practicing before the SEC. See Richard M. Humes, Remarks of an SEC Associate General Counsel, 57 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 341 (2007) (discussing the types of disciplinary proceedings that the SEC has brought against attorneys). 10 Id The junior, or subordinate attorney, is deemed to have complied with the rules by reporting to the supervisory attorney. If the subordinate attorney reasonably believes that the supervisory attorney to whom he/she has reported has failed to comply with the rules up-the ladder reporting requirements, then the subordinate attorney may do so him/herself. See id (c),(d). 11 Id (d). 46 financial injury to investors, committing perjury, or to rectify the consequences of a material violation for which the attorney s services were used. 12 In 2010, Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ( Dodd-Frank ), which, in addition to implementing extensive financial regulatory reform measures, introduced a robust whistleblower program providing stronger protections from retaliation than are available under SOX s earlier whistleblower program. 13 Unlike the weaker retaliation protections and administrative remedies available under Section 806 of SOX, Dodd- Frank allows for a direct private right of action in federal district court for whistleblowers alleging retaliation by their employers and a lengthy statute of limitations to do so, as well as reinstatement of employment, compensation for litigation costs, and double back pay. 14 However, due to recent federal appellate case law, specifically the Fifth Circuit s decision in Asadi v. G.E. Energy, 15 whistleblowers who report only internally within their organizations may not be protected from these generous retaliation protections and must report to the SEC to be entitled to relief under Dodd-Frank. 16 Therefore, as the law currently stands, attorneywhistleblowers who experience retaliation for making the internal reports that are required under the Part 205 Rules are currently left unprotected under Dodd-Frank and, as will be discussed herein, subject to insufficient protections under SOX and state anti-retaliation laws. As might be expected, if such attorneys were to make external reports to the SEC under the permissive disclosures of the Part 205 Rules, they risk disciplinary action from state bar(s) that have 12 Id U.S.C. 78u Compare id. 78u-6(h) with 18 U.S.C. 1514A F.3d 620 (5th Cir. 2013). 16 See id.; see also Jennifer M. Pacella, Inside or Out? The Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program s Antiretaliation Protections for Internal Reporting, 86 TEMPLE L. REV. 721 (2014). 57 differing rules and to which they are admitted thereby prompting a catch-22 scenario for attorneys subject to conflicting regulatory regimes. This Article will examine this growing dilemma, specifically while focusing on attorneys working in-house who are obligated to act as internal whistleblowers under SOX, face retaliation for doing so, and are barred from redress under Dodd-Frank. 17 Part I will discuss the nature of retaliation that attorney-whistleblowers experience and will examine the evolution of legal developments allowing attorneys to avail themselves of remedies under state law for retaliatory discharge and other forms of retaliation. Part II will examine the whistleblowing duties of attorneys appearing and practicing before the SEC and their protection from retaliation, or lack thereof, under the federal laws of SOX and Dodd-Frank. Part III will examine the American Bar Association s reaction to the Part 205 Rules in 2003 and the amendments of its own Model Rules of Professional Conduct ( Model Rules ) to conform to the SEC s mandate under SOX. This section will analyze the ways in which the legal obligations of attorneys subject to the Part 205 Rules leave open the possibility of conflict with the ethical rules of the various states that either do not allow the same disclosures that are permitted under the Part 205 Rules or have not adopted the ABA s Model Rules, specifically Model Rule 1.13 (Organization as Client), governing the behavior of lawyers employed or retained by organizations, including corporations. 18 Although no court has yet determined the issue of whether the Part 205 Rules preempt conflicting state ethical rules, this section will offer predictions as to how future courts might decide this question by considering obstacle C.F.R In a separate article, I examined the eligibility of attorney-whistleblowers under Dodd-Frank to collect bounty rewards and noted that a related issue pertains to whether retaliation protections are available under the statute for whistleblowing lawyers, which I will address herein. See Jennifer M. Pacella, Advocate or Adversary? When Attorneys Act as Whistleblowers, 28 GEO. J. LEGAL ETHICS (forthcoming, 2015). 18 See MODEL RULES OF PROF L CONDUCT R8 preemption as a possible theory, which applies when conflicting state law hinders the accomplishment of the goals of federal law. 19 Although the preemption question has yet to be judicially resolved, this Article finds that preemption of the Part 205 Rules over conflicting state law is the most likely outcome, thereby requiring state bars to yield to the federal standards governing attorneys who appear and practice before the SEC. Given the fiduciary nature of the attorney-client relationship, Part IV will suggest amendments to improve the Part 205 Rules to qualify the reasonable belief standard and reporting trigger that permits an attorney to reveal externally so that all internal reporting mechanisms must be exhausted prior to doing so. Part IV will also explore a state-based solution through the adoption of a modified version of Model Rule 1.13 by the states whose ethical rules present direct conflicts with the Part 205 Rules in an effort to achieve uniformity in this context. Finally, this Article will consider the role of today s corporate attorney in the context of larger new governance regulatory regimes and will argue that the proposals set forth herein are on par with enforcing the collaboration, early fraud detection, and problem-solving features that are descriptive of modern-day governance and compliance structures. I. ATTORNEY-WHISTLEBLOWERS A. Lawyers as Targets of Retaliation It should come as no surprise that the attorney-client relationship is not intended to be antagonistic. This relationship of trust, specifically between an individual client and a lawyer, Columbia Venture, LLC v. Dewberry & Davis, LLC, 604 F.3d 824, 829 (4th Cir. 2010) (describing obstacle preemption as a type of conflict preemption authorized by the Supremacy Clause ); see also Arizona v. United States, 132 S. Ct. 2492, 2495 (2012) ( [S]tate laws are preempted when they conflict with federal law, including when they stand as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress. ) (citing Hines v. Davidowitz, 312 U.S. 52, 67 (1941)). 79 is long-heralded as sacrosanct. 21 The Model Rules of Professional Conduct of the American Bar Association ( ABA ) highlight these principles, noting that one of the most fundamental aspects of the attorney/client relationship is the lawyer s duty of confidentiality. 22 Under Model Rule 1.6, lawyers may not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client consents or in the event of other limited circumstances, including, for example, to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm or a crime or fraud reasonably certain to create substantial, financial or proprietary injury to another. 23 Beyond the exceptions set forth in Rule 1.6, Model Rule 1.13 allows the attorney who represents an organization to reveal confidential client information in certain instances that are discussed below. 24 The ABA amended Model Rule 1.13 in 2003 to follow the SEC s Part 205 Rules in an effort, as some believed, to retain control over the regulation of attorneys at a time when the federal government seemed to encroach on this area. 25 The current Rule 1.13 requires an attorney to report up-the-ladder to the highest authority of the organization usually, the board of 20 Sung Hui Kim, Lawyer Exceptionalism in the Gatekeeping Wars, 63 SMU L. REV. 73, 115 (2010) (discussing the differences between a lawyer s duty to keep secrets in the individual human client context and that involving corporate clients, as the duty under the latter is severely qualified. ). 21 There are few of the business relations of life involving a higher trust and confidence than that of attorney and client, or, generally speaking, one more honorably and faithfully discharged... Stockton v. Ford, 52 U.S. 232, 247 (1850). These principles are often cited in the present-day. See McClure v. Thompson, 323 F.3d 1233, 1242 (9 th Cir. 2003). 22 See MODEL RULES OF PROF L CONDUCT R. 1.6 and cmt. See also David B. Wilkins, Do Clients Have Ethical Obligations to Lawyers? Some Lessons from the Diversity Wars, 11 GEO. J. LEGAL ETHICS 855, 889 (1998) (discussing the lawyer s most important ethical duties as the duties of confidentiality and loyalty, which are justified on the ground that they are essential for fostering the level of trust necessary for clients to allow lawyers access to sensitive information and control over a client's legal affairs. ). 23 MODEL RULES OF PROF L CONDUCT R Id. R Id. R. 1.13; 2003 amendments available at leadership/2003/2003journal.authcheckdam.pdf [hereinafter ABA Amendments]; see Symposium, John S. Dzienkowski, Ethical Decisionmaking and the Design of Rules of Ethics, 42 HOFSTRA L. REV. 55, 92 (2013) (noting that the ABA made its 2003 amendments after being faced with losing complete control over regulating the disclosure duties of corporate lawyers, chose to make changes that were likely to forestall more aggressive SEC action. ). 810 directors, any knowledge he/she has that an officer, employee, or other person within the organization is violating the law or a legal obligation to the organization and that is likely to result in substantial injury to it. 26 Model Rule 1.13 also allows an attorney to reveal confidential information externally, whether or not Rule 1.6 would so allow, if the highest authority insists upon or fails to address in a timely and appropriate manner the violation of the law and the attorney reasonably believes that the violation is reasonably certain to result in substantial injury to the organization. 27 Given the possible sanctions that attorneys risk for failing to act as up-the-ladder whistleblowers under the Part 205 Rules, 28 the importance of protecting them from retaliation for doing so becomes apparent. There have been many instances of attorneys, especially in-house counsel, experiencing or fearing retaliation and one source has noted that whistleblower claims brought by in-house counsel have drastically increased in recent years. 29 Alex Long has provided an extensive study of the numerous cases that attorneys have brought in past years for 26 MODEL RULES OF PROF L CONDUCT R. 1.13(b). 27 Id. R. 1.13(c) C.F.R See, e.g., Alex B. Long, Retaliatory Discharge and the Ethical Rules Governing Attorneys, 79 U. COLO. L. REV. 1043, 1047 (2008) (noting numerous cases confirming that attorneys reporting misconduct, either internally or externally, are faced with retaliatory discharge); Brandon Gee, Supreme Court Ruling Raises Questions over Lawyer-Whistleblowers, NEW ENGLAND IN-HOUSE (May 6, 2014), available at (noting a huge uptick over the past two years in whistleblower claims brought by in-house counsel and compliance officers ); Kim T. Vu, Conscripting Attorneys to Battle Corporate Fraud Without Shields or Armor? Reconsidering Retaliatory Discharge in Light of Sarbanes-Oxley, 105 MICH. L. REV. 209, (2006) (describing the case of John E. Isselmann, Jr., former general counsel of Electro Scientific Industries Incorporated, who attempted to report accounting fraud internally but later resigned for fear for retaliation); see also id. (citing Letter from Elaine J. Mittleman, Comments on Proposed Rule Implementation of Standards of Professional Conduct for Attorneys, File No , (Apr. 17, 2003), available at https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s74502/ejmittleman1.htm ( The obvious and severe retaliation that an attorney or a law firm may face as a result of reporting surely serves as a strong disincentive to making reports or an incentive to interpret situations in a way that reporting is not required. ). 911 experiencing retaliation after adhering to their professional ethics duties. 30 Inside counsel, as employees of the business organizations for which they work, are especially vulnerable to the devastating effects of whistleblower retaliation in ways that external counsel who rely on a variety of clients are not. 31 In-house attorneys tend to be much more intimately involved with the client, as they have close access to information, strive to maintain personal and professional ties to the client (their sole employer), and possess a greater ability to promote constructive corporate activity that protects the organization s long-term best interests. 32 An in-house counsel s relationship with his/her organization as client is much the same as other employees, visible through the lawyer s dependence on the company for income and benefits, and subject to the control of the employer with respect to hours, salary, promotion, and personnel procedures. 33 As Sung Hui Kim has discussed, inside counsel depend financially on one client [i]f they get fired, they lose their entire income, insurance, and basic livelihood. If pensions or stock options have not vested, then enormous sums of money can be forfeited as well. Even worse, if they get fired for whistle-blowing, they may get blacklisted Given what is at stake, the need for robust retaliation protections for in-house attorneys is crucial such protections also 30 See Long, supra note 29, at (examining the various categories of attorney-whistleblowing situations and finding the basic theme in nearly all cases is that attorneys are forced to decide between retaining their employment and ethically engaging in law practice). 31 See Sara A. Corello, In-house Counsel s Right to Sue for Retaliatory Discharge, 92 COLUM. L. REV. 389, (1992) (describing the differences between inside and outside counsel). 32 Corello, supra note 31, at Id. at (arguing that in-house counsel should be considered to fit the definition of employee for the purpose of statutory and common law protections from retaliatory discharge). See also Orly Lobel, Lawyering Loyalties: Speech Rights and Duties Within Twenty-First Century New Governance, 77 FORDHAM L. REV. 1245, 1249 (2009) (noting the complete economic dependence of in-house counsel on their employers). But see Balla v. Gambro 145 Ill. 2d. 492, (Ill. 1991) (taking the view that attorneys are not subject to retaliation protections given the relationship of trust and confidence that they maintain as part of the attorney-client relationship). 34 Sung Hui Kim, The Banality of Fraud: Resituating the Inside Counsel as Gatekeeper, 74 FORDHAM L. REV. 983, (2005); see also Vu, supra note 29, at 236 (noting the importance of retaliation protections for attorneys, especially in light of their reporting duties under SOX). 1012 ensure that attorneys will raise concerns or voice oppositions to protect the organizational client without fear of reprimand from corporate officers or directors who may wish to persist with misconduct. 35 Beyond the threat of retaliatory discharge, other common forms of retaliation include pressure to facilitate, rather than thwart, corporate transactions, the desire to please management in an effort to ensure performance-based bonuses, and pressure to conform to the values of the organization and to be a team player. 36 As Eric Alden has expressed, [t]he CEO and, in other cases, the CFO have the practical ability to cost the GC his or her job. 37 Given that most general counsel of public companies are subordinate to a company s chief executive officer, chief financial officer, or other senior officer, the risk of retaliation in the form of termination is very real when senior officers insist upon illegal activity while general counsel unwillingly agree to the action. 38 Such officers may outright fire the general counsel for failing to facilitate transactions or, in the more subtle but equally effective manner of those sophisticated 35 See id; Corello, supra note 31, at Kim, supra note 34, at , 1026 (discussing the conformity pressures that may prompt inside lawyers to remain silent in the face of misconduct, including the desire to avoid stigma ad maintain social capital. ) See also David B. Greenberger, Marcia P. Miceli, and Debra J. Cohen, Oppositionists and Group Norms: The Reciprocal Influence of Whistleblowers and Co-workers, 6 J. BUSINESS ETHICS 527, (1987) (noting that whistleblowing itself will be less likely to occur in highly cohesive groups, which exert pressure on individuals to conform, especially when the potential whistleblower highly depends on the group). In this way, in-house lawyers may be expected to act in accordance with the expectations of the officers that oversee them. See also Mark A. Sargent, Lawyers in the Moral Maze, 49 VILL. L. REV. 867, 879 (2004) (discussing the in-house counsel s vulnerability to adopting the same occupational morality as the managers with whom they work, because they are subject to the same social exigencies, power struggles, personal uncertainties and demands of expediency that characterize the corporate bureaucratic organization. ). 37 Eric Alden, Blocking the Ax: Shielding Corporate Counsel from Retaliation as an Alternative to White Collar Hypercriminalization, 36 U. HAW. L. REV. 95, 102 (2014). 38 Id; see also Robert T. Begg, Whistleblower Law and Ethics, in ETHICAL STANDARDS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR: A GUIDE FOR GOVERNMENT LAWYERS, CLIENTS, AND PUBLIC OFFICIALS (Patricia Salkin, ed., American Bar Association, 2008) (discussing the ethical dilemmas that in-house counsel face as internal whistleblowers). 1113 in the fine art of retaliation, verbally, or otherwise, signal that the [general counsel s] continued employment in that position is no longer desired. 39 The common law and statutory retaliation protections available to attorneywhistleblowers have evolved over time. Prior to the advent of SOX and other statutory protections for whistleblowers, attorneys, like other employees, had to rely on the common law tort claim of retaliatory discharge. Under this legal theory, an employee who was terminated for engaging in certain actions protected by public policy, such as complaining about an employer s unlawful behavior or blowing the whistle, is eligible for relief. 40 This right to sue is considered an exception to the common law employment-at-will doctrine and although may differ depending on the jurisdiction, generally protects employees for being fired for exercising statutory or constitutional rights, for refusing to violate the law, or for reporting on their employer s wrongdoing. 41 This doctrine is not a perfect remedy for attorney-whistleblowers given that it creates a tension between the conception of inside counsel primarily as an employee, deserving some judicial protection from retaliation, and as a lawyer-advocate, whose client has an unfettered right to terminate [their lawyer]. 42 Early courts typically denied inside counsel the right to sue. Perhaps one of the bestknown cases denying counsel this right is Balla v. Gambro, which barred an in-house attorney from bringing a retaliatory discharge claim against his former employer after he was fired for refusing to support his employer s decision to sell misbranded and/or adulterated kidney 39 Id. 40 Brandon v. Anesthesia & Pain Mgmt. Associates, Ltd., 277 F.3d 936, (7th Cir. 2002). 41 Corello, supra note 31 at (citing Petermann v. International Bhd. Of Teamsters Local, 344 P.2d 25 (Cal. Dist. Ct. App as the first case to recognize this exception). 42 Kim, supra note 34, at14 dialyzers. 43 The court acknowledged that although the attorney had a mandatory ethical duty to reveal information to the extent necessary to prevent a client from committing an act likely to result in serious bodily injury or death, he could not then avail himself of relief under the tort of retaliatory discharge due to the chilling effect such an action would have on the attorney/client relationship and the possibility of thwarting a client s willingness to be forthright and candid with their in-house counsel. 44 Decisions like Balla were based on the notion that attorneys must sometimes sacrifice their livelihood and employment for the purpose of protecting the integrity of the legal profession. 45 Other courts have since relaxed the rigidity of Balla by recognizing that lawyers should be entitled to the same rights as other employees, giving rise to the right to sue for retaliatory discharge in instances where no confidentiality concerns would be at play, or, if they are, by allowing the attorney to proceed with the claim by safeguarding the information through procedural methods. 46 These courts have acknowledged professional codes of ethics as a source of public policy worthy of supporting a retaliatory discharge claim, thereby protecting in-house lawyers from pressure by their employers to violate the rules of professional conduct by furthering a client s intent to commit a crime or fraud. 47 In General Dynamics Corporation v. Superior Court, the Supreme Court of California noted the vulnerability of in-house counsel in Ill. 2d. 492, (Ill. 1991). 44 Id. at Employers might be hesitant to turn to their in-house counsel for advice regarding potentially questionable corporate conduct knowing that their in-house counsel could use this information in a retaliatory discharge suit. 45 Kim, supra note 34, at 1065 (citing Balla, 145 Ill. 2d. at 505). 46 Id. (citing General Dynamics Corp. v. Superior Ct., 876 P.2d 487, (1994)). 47 Corello, supra note 31 at (citing Pierce v. Ortho Pharmaceutical Corp., 417 A.2d 505, 512 (1980)). Employees who are professionals owe a special duty to abide not only by federal and state law, but also by the recognized codes of ethics of their professions. That duty may oblige them to decline to perform acts required by their employers. Id. See also Petermann, 344 P.2d. at 27; In re Meeker, 414 P.2d 862, 864 (N.M. 1996)); see also Begg, supra note 38, at 209 (discussing professional ethics codes as sources of public policy). 1315 being completely dependent on the good will and confidence of a single employer to provide livelihood and career success, thereby justifying the attorney s need for retaliation protections when representing corporations, whose essential goal is to maximize profits. 48 The court held that in-house lawyers have a well-justified right to redress and that courts handling these matters can institute measures to ensure client confidences are left intact when lawyers bring retaliation claims, including the use of sealing and protective orders, limiting admissible evidence, or in camera proceedings by taking an aggressive managerial role, judges can minimize the dangers to the legitimate privilege interests of these cases. 49 Despite making progress towards allowing in-house lawyers to pursue retaliation claims, the court in General Dynamics clearly expressed that when claims for retaliatory discharge cannot be established without breaching the attorney-client privilege, then the case must be dismissed to preserve that privilege. 50 As courts and scholars have noted, it may prove to be exceedingly difficult for an in-house attorney to establish claims for retaliatory discharge without disclosing some aspect of a confidential attorney/client communication. 51 Further, it is likely to be difficult to predict the precise approach the court will take in such cases, as well as the expected outcome, given the lack of consistency among the states in such decisions. 52 This difficulty, along with the fact that many courts have simply not recognized the retaliatory 48 General Dynamics, 876 P.2d at Id. at 876 P.2d at Id. In litigation involving disputes over attorneys fees, courts have tended to find that the attorney-client privilege is waived by the client for placing the matter in dispute or that the Model Rules offer an exception to the lawyer s duty of confidentiality to resolve a dispute between the lawyer and client. See, e.g., Ideal Elec. Sec. Co. v. Int'l Fid. Ins. Co., 129 F.3d 143, 146 (D.C. Cir. 1997); United States v. Ballard, 779 F.2d 287, 292 (5th Cir. 1986); MODEL RULES OF PROF L CONDUCT R. 1.6(b)(5); TRIAL OBJECTIONS HANDBOOK 2d 5:8. 51 Kim, supra note 34, at 1066 (noting that such difficulties are likely to arise given the role that inside lawyers play and the nature of the allegations inherent in a retaliatory discharge claim by employed lawyers.). 52 See Long, supra note 29, at16 discharge claim as being available to lawyers, 53 has given rise to an increasing need for statutory whistleblower protections for attorney-whistleblowers. B. Statutory Protections for Attorney-Whistleblowers The 2005 decision in Willy v. Administrative Review Board was the first to directly address the issue of confidentiality concerns in instances of lawyer-whistleblowers bringing claims under a federal whistleblowing statute that provides retaliation protections. 54 In this decision, the Fifth Circuit allowed an in-house attorney to pursue a retaliation claim under several environmental statutes after being fired for concluding in a report that a subsidiary of his employer was exposed to liability for federal environmental violations. 55 The court found that the confidential information in question was admissible under the breach of duty exception to the general non-disclosure rule of client confidences, allowing an attorney to reveal confidences to bring an offensive claim against a client, rather than only as a defense against charges brought by the client against the lawyer. 56 The Fifth Circuit relied on its precedent in Doe v. A. Corp. in coming to this conclusion, which held that an attorney is not barred from pursuing his/her rights 53 Kim, supra note 34, at Kim also notes that among the courts that have recognized such a cause of action, many have failed to address the issue of whether inside counsel may use privileged or confidential material in pursuing their claim. See also Raymis H.C. Kim, In-House Counsel's Wrongful Discharge Action Under the Public Policy Exception and Retaliatory Discharge Doctrine, 67 WASH. L. REV. 893, 894 (1992) (noting that most courts have refused to apply these protections to in-house attorneys due to the traditional at-will nature of attorney-client employment and the possible adverse effect such causes of action may have on the attorney-client relationship. ) F.3d 483; see also Kim, supra note 34, at Willy, 423 F.3d at Id. at In so deciding, the Fifth Circuit rejected the DOL Administrative Review Board s reliance on the First Circuit s decision in Siedle v. Putnam Investments, Inc. that an attorney may use privileged information only defensively as a shield and never as a sword. Id. at 496 (citing Siedle, 147 F.3d 7, 11 (1 st Cir. 1998)). The breach of duty exception of Supreme Court Standard 503(d) states that there is no attorney/client privilege as it pertains to a communication relevant to an issue of breach of duty by the lawyer to his client or by the client to the lawyer Id. at 496. Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6 (b)(5) similarly allows a lawyer to reveal confidential information relating to his/her representation of the client to the extent reasonably necessary to establish a claim or defense on behalf of the lawyer in a controversy between the lawyer and the client, to establish a defense to a criminal charge or civil claim against the lawyer based upon conduct in which the client was involved, or to respond to allegations in any proceeding concerning the lawyer's representation of the client. MODEL RULES OF PROF L CONDUCT R. 1.6(b)(5) (emphasis added). 1517 against a former client or employer just because proving these rights may involve the use of confidential information. 57 The decision in Willy is on par with the position of the American Bar Association as expressed in a formal opinion in 2001, which acknowledged that the Model Rules do not prohibit a lawyer from suing former clients when the lawyer was terminated for complying with his/her ethical obligations. 58 Other courts to address these issues have recognized the right of a lawyer to pursue retaliation protection under SOX s whistleblower provisions. Under Section 806 of SOX, enacted in 2002, employees of publicly-traded companies who blow the whistle on reasonably believed violations of the federal securities laws by their employers are protected from retaliation if they report such information either externally to a federal regulatory or law enforcement agency, member or committee of Congress, or internally to anyone with supervisory authority over the employee. 59 A whistleblower alleging retaliation under this statute may seek relief against the employer by undergoing the administrative remedy of filing a complaint with the Secretary of Labor no more than 180 days after the date of the violation or the date of the whistleblower s awareness of it, and is eligible for compensatory damages in the form of reinstatement of employment, back pay with interest, and litigation and attorney s fees. 60 Cases brought in the years since Section 806 s enactment reveal that attorneywhistleblowers may avail themselves of SOX s protections. One of the most notable of such cases is Van Asdale v. International Game Technology, which allowed two former general 57 Id. at (citing Doe v. A. Corp., 709 F.2d 1043, 1050 (1983). 58 ABA Comm. on Ethics & Prof l Responsibility, Formal Op (2001). The ABA also noted that in-house lawyers pursuing such claims must comply with the duty of confidentiality to former clients and may reveal information only to the extent necessary to establish his/her claim against the employer U.S.C. 1514A(a). 60 Id. 1514A(b), (c). If the Secretary of Labor has not issued a final decision within 180 days of the filing of the complaint and there is no evidence that the delay is due to bad faith of the whistleblower, then the whistleblower may bring an action in federal district court. 1618 counsels to proceed with a retaliation claim after alleging that they were terminated for reporting possible fraud in connection with a merger that their employer/client was undergoing. 61 When the former employer claimed that the attorneys were barred from bringing forth such claims due to their ethical obligations under the Illinois rules of professional conduct (the jurisdiction in which they were admitted), the Ninth Circuit held that confidentiality concerns alone would not merit a dismissal of the case. 62 Further, the court noted that the text and structure of SOX add strength to the ability of the case to proceed, as SOX expressly allows for any person alleging retaliation to file a complaint before the Secretary of Labor and that nothing in the statute s language reveals that an in-house lawyer is not also protected from retaliation thereunder. 63 Although attorneys are able to seek relief under SOX for acting as whistleblowers, empirical studies conducted on the success of SOX retaliation claims would suggest that the actual probability of success thereunder is not likely. 64 As will be discussed in the next section, very few internal and external whistleblowers have actually obtained relief under SOX. As the law currently stands, attorneys who internally blow the whistle cannot seek protection under the Dodd-Frank whistleblower program, which protects only external disclosures, 65 despite the fact that it was intended to improve the retaliation protections available under SOX F.3d 989 (2009). See also Jordan v. Sprint Nextel Corp., ARB No (ARB Sept. 30, 2009) (ruling that an in-house attorney may utilize statements covered by the attorney-client privilege in support of a SOX Section 806 whistleblower claim). 62 Id. at Id. at 996. In so deciding, the Ninth Circuit also noted that Congress had plainly considered the role attorneys might play in reporting possible securities fraud in calling for the Part 205 Rules. 64 See Richard Moberly, Unfulfilled Expectations: An Empirical Analysis of Why Sarbanes-Oxley s Whistleblowers Rarely Win, 49 WM. & MARY L. REV. 65 (2007); see also Beverley H. Earle & Gerald A. Madek, The Mirage of Whistleblower Protection Under Sarbanes-Oxley: A Proposal for Change, 44 AM. BUS. L.J. 1 (2007). 65 See infra Part IIB. 66 See infra note19 II. INADEQUACIES OF RETALIATION PROTECTIONS FOR ATTORNEY- WHISTLEBLOWERS UNDER FEDERAL WHISTLEBLOWING PROGRAMS A. The SOX Whistleblower Program and Attorney-Reporting Rules When Congress enacted the SOX whistleblower program in 2002 in the wake of Enron s collapse, hopes for its success were high. 67 As discussed, prior to SOX, corporate whistleblowers reporting fraud and thereafter experiencing retaliation could turn only to a patchwork of various state laws, resulting in dramatic variations among states and a difficulty for employees to predict the scope of their protection given the judge-made nature of the law. 68 SOX relies on two models to encourage whistleblowing an antiretaliation provision providing redress to employees of publicly traded companies who experience retaliation after blowing the whistle and a structural model to change the then-prevalent corporate culture of staying silent when would-be whistleblowers witnessed misconduct. 69 Whistleblowers need not report externally to be protected under SOX. 70 As Terry Dworkin has noted, the SOX whistleblower program is thus distinguishable from other state and federal statutes in that it specif[ies] internal whistleblowing as an appropriate channel, thereby following common whistleblower practice given that most whistleblowers tend to initially report internally Richard Moberly, Sarbanes-Oxley s Whistleblower Provisions: Ten Years Later, 64 S.C. L. REV. 1, 10 (2012) (citing scholars and advocates who opined that Sarbanes-Oxley greatly improved whistleblower protections in the United States. ). 68 Id. at 7 (noting that no statute prior to SOX addressed far-reaching misconduct such as the fraud that led to Enron-like scandals, thereby excluding employee-whistleblowers from retaliation protections under federal law if they had reported corporate wrongdoing that was not the right type... covered by a particular statute with a whistleblower provision. ); see also S. REP. NO , at 10 (2002) (discussing SOX s need to address the problem that whistleblowers were left unprotected under current law. ). 69 Id. at 10; see also Richard Moberly, Sarbanes-Oxley s Structural Model to Encourage Corporate Whistleblowers, 2006 BYU L. REV. 1107, 1131 (2006) U.S.C. 1514A. 71 Terry Morehead Dworkin, SOX and Whistleblowing, 105 MICH. L. REV. 1757, 1760 (2007) (noting that most state and federal whistleblower statutes only designate external reporting as eligible for protection). 1820 In order to file a claim under SOX, the whistleblower must undergo several cumbersome administrative hurdles. The procedural requirements of SOX require an aggrieved whistleblower to file a complaint with the Secretary of Labor (OSHA), which investigates the claim. 72 If OSHA substantiates the claim, the whistleblower is entitled to remedies that include reinstatement of employment, back pay with interest, and litigation and attorney s fees. 73 Each party may appeal OSHA s decision to an Administrative Law Judge ( ALJ ) with a chance for further appeal to the Administrative Review Board and then ultimately to federal court. 74 Scholars have widely acknowledged the weaknesses in SOX s retaliation protections. 75 Richard Moberly, who conducted an extensive empirical study of all decisions issued by OSHA and ALJs under SOX, revealed in 2007 that a mere 3.6% of SOX whistleblowers have obtained relief under the statute and that only 6.5% won on appeal. 76 Moberly did a follow-up study in 2012 affirming SOX s weaknesses and finding that the success rate for whistleblowers has been even worse since his first study. 77 The numbers appear to be so low, in part, due to the various procedural hurdles and rigorous filtering systems necessary to prevail in an OSHA investigation or ALJ hearing, including the relatively short statute of limitations of 180 days, the U.S.C. 1514A. OSHA will investigate the claim if the employee has presented a prima facie case showing that the protected activity was a contributing factor in the employer s adverse action that they have alleged. 29 C.F.R (d). 73 Id. 74 Id.; Moberly, supra note 67, at See, e.g, Moberly, supra notes 64 and 67; Earle & Madek, supra note 64; Dworkin, supra note 71, at Moberly, supra note 64, at 66-67; see also Moberly, supra note 67, at 29 (noting that by July 13, 2005, OSHA had issued 361 SOX decisions and only 13 claimants won). 77 Moberly, supra note 67, at View more
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