President Obama is scheduled to sign the Dodd-Frank Act tomorrow to enact the most significant reforms of our financial system in generations. Lawyers are already assessing some of those reforms, and we are focused on the new provisions for whistleblowers. The Advocacy Director of the National Whistleblowers Center already reported here on the substantive provisions of the new law. Yesterday the National Law Journal released an article with a legal analysis of the whistleblower provisions. Management lawyers, including Richard Cassin of Singapore, are bemoaning the liability companies will face, and the change in incentives that will encourage insiders to become whistleblowers for the rewards provided by the new law. Jason Zuckerman of The Employment Law Group told the National Law Journal, “This new monetary reward program should encourage employees to blow the whistle and put more pressure on the SEC to conduct real investigations that would lead to appropriate accountability.” He also expresses appreciation for the closure of loopholes in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and the False Claims Act (FCA). I do too.
