The day after Labor Day has always seemed like a second New Year.  In that spirit, let’s kick off the “new year” with further thoughts on a compliance defense.

For starters, I am pleased to share (here) the published version of my scholarship “Revisiting a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Compliance Defense.”  The published version in the Wisconsin Law Review (compared to the draft released last January) contains additional reasons and rationale for why the FCPA ought to be amended to make a company’s pre-existing compliance policies and procedures, and its good-faith efforts to comply with the FCPA, relevant as a matter of law when a non-executive employee or agent acts contrary to those policies and procedures.

In other developments relevant to a compliance defense and of particular note, a Senior Investigations Counsel with the SEC’s FCPA Unit published an article (here) in Standford’s Journal of Law, Business & Finance arguing that “the United States should adopt a compliance procedures defense for the FCPA similar to the adequate procedures defense under the Bribery Act.”  The typical “I am not speaking on behalf of the SEC” disclaimers applied to Jon Jordan’s article, but it is hard to ignore calls for reform from a current SEC official who spends his days investigating FCPA issues.

As noted in this previous post, William Jacobson (former assistant chief of DOJ FCPA enforcement and current co-general counsel and chief compliance officer at Weatherford International Ltd.) has joined the growing chorus of former high-ranking DOJ officials calling for reform.  The FCPA Blog recently (here) called for a revival of Jacobson’s plan for recognizing a company’s pre-existing FCPA compliance policies and procedures.  While I agree with much of what Jacobson says, I disagree that the solution to this important issue is non-binding DOJ policies and procedures.  I also disagree that a trigger for recognizing a company’s pre-existing FCPA compliance policies and procedures should be, as Jacobson suggests, a company’s voluntary disclosure to the enforcement agencies.

Click here to read the complete article.

Source: Mike Koehler (Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois Univ. School of Law) aka “FCPA Professor”