It's All in the Footnotes: A Field Guide to SEC Whistleblower Award

American Bar Association Business Law Today
26 minute read | May.15.2018

More than seven years since the Dodd-Frank Act's whistleblower incentive provisions became effective, and more than five years since the first SEC whistleblower program award, only a few courts have put the program under a microscope. In the absence of meaningful case law and in light of the SEC's practice to heavily redact orders granting and denying awards, how do we know what makes the program really tick? The short answer: it's all in the footnotes.

In this first-of-a-kind article, we tie together more than 350 footnotes in 120 SEC whistleblower orders so that you can get easy answers to four key questions: Who qualifies for SEC whistleblower awards? What procedural rights and responsibilities do they have? When does the SEC make exceptions? And how does the SEC calculate and allocate awards?

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Authors

Christopher Regan Partner, White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance, Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)

Washington, D.C.

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D:+1 202 349 7970
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Practice:

White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance
Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)

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Christopher Regan Partner

Washington, D.C.

Chris has represented numerous individual defendants in parallel proceedings involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), the SEC and state attorneys general investigations, as well as administrative and/or regulatory enforcement litigation with agencies such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

His broad range of experience includes conducting internal investigations and the defense of criminal and/or grand jury investigations involving accounting fraud, disclosure issues, internal controls and corporate governance, tax fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, antitrust violations, mail and wire fraud, theft of trade secrets and a wide array of environmental crimes. He has been involved in all aspects of the SEC’s enforcement program including the Wells process and the emerging issues surrounding the agency’s whistleblower programs and employee protections thereunder.

His environmental practice ranges from conducting internal investigations to trial defense, with a strong focus on the unique suspension and debarment issues that arise under the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) program. In addition to his civil and criminal enforcement experience, Chris is proficient with lender liability issues, environmental due diligence, toxic tort ligation, superfund cost recovery and contribution actions and compliance planning for environmental health and safety issues.

Chris is recognized in Chambers as a Recognized Practitioner in D.C. White Collar Crime & Government Investigations, in Legal 500 for Corporate Investigations and White Collar Criminal Defense, and Best Lawyers in America in the fields of Criminal Defense: White-Collar, Corporate Governance Law, Corporate Compliance Law, and Litigation - Securities.

Prior to joining Orrick, Chris was a partner at Buckley LLP.