Whistleblower Law Blog

Webinar: Using New Developments In Whistleblower Laws To Your Client’s Advantage

Webinar: Using New Developments In Whistleblower Laws To Your Client’s Advantage
March 10, 2011
11:00 a.m. Pacific/2:00p.m. ET/1:00p.m. CT/ 12:00 MT

Congress recently enacted several new robust whistleblower reward and protection laws, and strengthened existing whistleblower laws. This webinar will address new developments in whistleblower law, including recent decisions strengthening the rights of federal employee whistleblowers. Topics include:

  • The whistleblower reward provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the proposed regulations implementing those provisions.
  • Dodd-Frank Act amendments strengthening the anti-retaliation provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the False Claims Act.
  • Three new whistleblower retaliation causes of action in the Dodd-Frank Act.
  • Recent case developments under Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Stone v. Instrumentation Lab. Co., 591 F.3d 239 (4th Cir. 2009) clarifying the right to de novo review in federal court.
  • New legislation protecting whistleblowing on food safety.
  • Recent developments under the False Claims Act, including legislation closing loopholes.
  • Recent case developments in federal employee whistleblower protection, including the MPSB’s recent decision in Conyers v. Dep’t Defense, 2010 MSPB 2047, December 22, 2010).
  • An overview of recently enacted federal whistleblower protection laws protecting workers in the transportation and health care industries.

NELA’s expert faculty will address these new whistleblower protection laws and offer practical tips for representing whistleblowers.

Presenters:
Tom Devine
Tom Devine is Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project (GAP) where he has worked since January 1979. GAP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest organization that champions the rights of whistleblowers—those employees who exercise freedom of speech to challenge abuses of power that betray the public trust. During his 29 years at GAP he has represented or informally helped over 4,000 whistleblowers to make a difference, such as stopping nuclear power plants that were accidents waiting to happen, deregulation of meat inspection and the next generation of Star Wars. He has been a leader in the campaigns to pass or defend nearly all major national or international whistleblower laws, from the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 for federal employees, and breakthrough laws creating the right to jury trials for corporate whistleblowers for corporate employees, to new U.N. and African Development Bank policies legalizing public freedom of expression for their own whistleblowers, the first time any Intergovernmental Organizations have adopted this cornerstone for global accountability. He has been an “Ambassador of Whistleblowing” for the State Department in over a dozen nations on speaking tours to advocate whistleblower rights as a cornerstone transparency reform for globalization. Mr. Devine has authored or co-authored numerous books, including Courage Without Martyrdom: The Whistleblower’s Survival Guide, law review articles, and newspaper op-ed articles.

Reuben A. Guttman
Reuben A. Guttman is a director at Grant & Eisenhofer where he heads the Federal False Claims Act and whistleblower practice. Mr. Guttman earned his law degree at Emory University Law School in 1985 and his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Rochester in 1981. He is a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Emory University School of Law Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. As part of a U.S. State Department program in conjunction with the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, he has been one of five visiting professors at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City training Mexican judges and practitioners on oral advocacy and trial practice. Mr. Guttman is also faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. He has been a guest lecturer at a number of universities including Jao Tong University in Shanghai, as well as Peking University and Renmin University in Beijing.

Stephen M. Kohn
Stephen M. Kohn is a founding member of the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, LLP and currently serves as the Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center. In 1985 he wrote the first-ever legal treatise on whistleblower law, Protecting Environmental and Nuclear Whistleblowers: A Litigation Manual, and since then has written seven other books and numerous law journal articles on whistleblower law and civil liberties. Mr. Kohn started representing whistleblowers in 1984 as the Clinical Director and Director of Corporate Litigation for the Government Accountability Project. His clients have blown the whistle on billion dollar tax frauds, illegal “no-bid” contracts given to insiders for the “Reconstruction of Iraq,” and high level corporate and government misconduct. Mr. Kohn consulted with staff from the Senate Banking Committee during the drafting phase of the Dodd-Frank Act, and contributed suggestions to Section 21F of the Securities Exc hange Act that were ultimately incorporated into the law. He graduated magna cum laude from Boston University, earned a Master’s Degree in political science from Brown University and his law degree from Northeastern University.

Jason Mark Zuckerman
Jason Zuckerman, a Principal at The Employment Law Group, P.C., has been recognized twice by Washingtonian magazine as a “Top Whistleblower Lawyer” and has substantial experience litigating whistleblower retaliation, qui tam, and wrongful discharge cases, including a qui tam action under the False Claims Act that settled for $57 million. Mr. Zuckerman serves as Co-Chair of the Whistleblower Subcommittee of the ABA Labor and Employment Section’s Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee, Co-Chair of the Sarbanes-Oxley Subcommittee of the Fair Labor Standards Legislation Committee of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section, Co-Chair of the Whistleblower Committee of the District of Columbia Bar’s Labor and Employment Section, and has served as Co-Chair of the National Employment Lawyers Association’s Whistleblower Committee. In addition, Mr. Zuckerman serves on the Government Accountability Project’s Advisory Committee and has worked with public interest groups to enact new whistleblower protection laws and strengthen existing laws. Mr. Zuckerman co-authored a chapter on litigating whistleblower cases for Whistleblowing: The Law of Retaliatory Discharge (BNA Books), drafted a chapter on the D.C. Whistleblower Protection Act for the D.C. Practice Manual and is co-editor of the Whistleblower Law Blog. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University and received his law degree from the University of Virginia.

How To Attend
Register for the webinar at this website.  Join the live program from your office, home, or hotel room using a computer for the web portion and telephone for the audio portion. You may ask questions, participate in surveys, and post comments from your computer during the program. You may also invite colleagues to watch the program from a shared computer or projection screen and speakerphone. Please note that credit (if available) is only provided to registered attendees participating at their own computer and phone. Simple instructions with a link to the program will be sent when you register.

Credit
If applicable, you may obtain credit in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously for this program (see pending/approved list below). Registrants in jurisdictions not listed below will receive a Certificate of Attendance/Completion that may or may not meet credit requirements in other jurisdictions. Where applicable, credit will be only awarded to a paid registrant attending the live program at their own computer and phone.

This program has been approved for or is pending credit for:
CA, CO, IL, VA

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