Whistleblower lawyer Jason Zuckerman will speak at a BNA Bloomberg webinar about whistleblower rewards and whistleblower protections on March 31, 2015. He will be joined by Sean X. McKessy , Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, Division of Enforcement, Steven J. Pearlman, partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of Proskauer’s Whistleblowing & Retaliation Group, and Anthony Rosa, Deputy Director for Whistleblower Protection Programs at OSHA. Registration is available here.
Employee whistleblower reward and retaliation claims under a range of laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts, are on the rise. Whistleblowers have recently obtained record jury verdicts and record awards, including a $30 million bounty from the SEC and a $6 million verdict in a SOX retaliation case.
Join us for this program, as our expert panel addresses the latest developments in whistleblower rewards and retaliation laws including:
• Implications of recent record whistleblower awards, including a $30 million SEC bounty;
• Scope of protected whistleblowing under the Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Acts
• Drawing the lines of SOX coverage one year post-Lawson;
• Recent decisions on causation and same-decision defense, including Feldman and Speegle;
• SEC enforcement of Dodd-Frank anti-retaliation provision and SEC prohibition against gag clauses;
• OSHA enforcement trends; and
• Tips for encouraging internal reporting.
Educational Objectives:
• Understand the primary whistleblower laws and how OSHA, the SEC, and the CFTC investigate whistleblower disclosures and retaliation claims.
• Learn best practices for responding to whistleblower complaints, including appropriate questions, statements and documentation.
• Discover how the risk of whistleblower claims may be minimized.
• Find out how to address situations where a whistleblower takes confidential information from his or her employer.
Who would benefit most from attending this program?
Financial professionals, in-house corporate counsel, labor and employment attorneys, human resource professionals
Speakers
SEAN X. MCKESSY, SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Sean McKessy is Chief of the SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower, Division of Enforcement. He re-joined the SEC in February 2011 to oversee this office, where he leads a program charged with handling whistleblowers’ tips and complaints and helping the Commission determine the awards for individuals who provide the agency with information that leads to successful enforcement actions. Mr. McKessy previously worked at the SEC from 1997 to 2000, serving as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement. More recently, he served as corporate secretary for both Altria Group, Inc. and AOL Inc. and as securities counsel for Caterpillar, Inc. In these roles, Mr. McKessy developed and supervised internal compliance and reporting programs related to the federal securities laws, served as corporate compliance officer, and coordinated the reporting of potential violations to boards of directors.
Mr. McKessy earned a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.
STEVEN J. PEARLMAN, PROSKAUER ROSE LLP
Steven Pearlman is a partner in the Labor & Employment Law Department and co-head of Proskauer’s Whistleblowing & Retaliation Group, resident in the Chicago office. Mr. Pearlman’s practice focuses on defending complex employment litigation involving claims of discrimination and harassment, wage-and-hour laws, and breaches of restrictive covenants such as non-competition agreements. He has successfully tried cases to verdict before judges and juries in Illinois, Florida, and California and has defended what is reported to be the largest Illinois-only class action in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Mr. Pearlman is recognized for his accomplishments and thought leadership in the field of labor and employment law. He was one of just two lawyers named to the Ethisphere “Attorneys Who Matter” list in the area of labor and employment, one of five U.S. lawyers selected as a “Rising Star Under 40” in the area of employment law, and one of “40 Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch” selected from a field of 1,200 nominees. He has also been named as an Illinois Super Lawyer and recognized by The U.S. Legal 500.
Mr. Pearlman earned a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is admitted to practice in California and Illinois as well as before the California and Illinois Supreme Courts and many U.S. District Courts and Courts of Appeal.
ANTHONY ROSA, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
Anthony Rosa is currently serving as the Deputy Director for Whistleblower Protection Programs at OSHA. He has been with OSHA for more than 22 years, working first from the New York Regional Office and then transferring to the Tampa Area Office as a Compliance Assistance Specialist and then becoming the lead expert in whistleblower protection in Atlanta. Throughout Mr. Rosa’s career, he has assumed numerous positions within all program areas for OSHA, including compliance officer for state plan and consultation programs and compliance assistance for administrative programs including personnel and fiscal management, whistleblower programs, and audit programs. He also assumed a directorial position for a time in the DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.
Mr. Rosa’s expertise in occupational safety and health programs and whistleblower protection programs has been invaluable to the agency and primarily to Region IV, where an increase in merit determinations and settlements has been achieved.
JASON ZUCKERMAN, ZUCKERMAN LAW
Jason Zuckerman, Principal of Zuckerman Law, litigates whistleblower retaliation, qui tam, wrongful discharge, discrimination, non-compete, and other employment-related claims. He also authors the Whistleblower Protection Law Blog. His broad experience includes practicing employment law at a national law firm, serving as a Principal at The Employment Law Group, and serving as Senior Legal Advisor to the Special Counsel at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency charged with protecting whistleblowers in the federal government. In 2012, the Secretary of Labor appointed Mr. Zuckerman to serve on the Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee, which makes recommendations to the Secretary of Labor to improve OSHA’s administration of federal whistleblower protections.
Mr. Zuckerman earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he served as Articles Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology, and a B.A. from Georgetown University, from which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude. In law school, he received the University of Virginia School of Law’s Pro Bono Award for his advocacy on behalf of prison inmates and mentally disabled individuals and helped establish a successful pro bono program that encourages students to volunteer a minimum of 150 hours of pro bono service during law school. Mr. Zuckerman is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia as well as before the United States Supreme Court; the United States Court of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, and Federal Circuits; the United States District Court for the District of Columbia; the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia; and the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.
