For over 25 years we have assisted companies in the implementation of effective compliance programs for our clients. We have created individualized programs for each client that were successfully used to limit the company’s potential civil and criminal liability. These programs are one of the best methods to help protect owners and management from potential liability as well. This can be accomplished through the creation and implementation of compliance programs that: (1) clearly establish the company’s commitment to comply with the law; (2) establish standards of conduct; (3) create an ongoing program of educating owners, management and employees on the requirements of adhering to the law; and (4) establish an ongoing oversight process that is designed to help the company detect and report wrongdoing. The result of the implementation of a compliance program is to help protect owners and management from any allegation that they were participants in civil or criminal wrongdoing.
Violations of the law by employees, even unwitting violations, can subject the company and its owners and management to the risk of penalties and reputational harm. However, effective adherence to a compliance program will help protect the company and its owners and management from potential civil or criminal penalties. Based on our experience, we have found that through the successful implementation of compliance programs, we have been able to protect our clients from criminal exposure, civil liability, and regulatory violations. We have found that where our compliance program has been properly implemented, we were able to protect the company, owners and management when a lower level employee violated the law.
The compliance programs that our firm has designed are different from other standard compliance programs because they have been designed by former federal prosecutors and a former federal judge who collectively have extensive knowledge about what is required by the federal government.
Because the United States Department of Justice recently enacted a policy which requires that prosecutors must investigate and, when appropriate, prosecute individuals as well as the company in every criminal and civil investigation, we believe that every owner and management of a company should insist on the implementation of a compliance program as a means of protecting themselves from personal criminal and or civil liability. This new Department of Justice policy is designed to cause lower level employees to cooperate with a government investigation against owners, and management, which means that every owner or executive of a company is under a potential increased risk that lower level employees will be prone to lie about them to get the best deal from the government. A properly implemented and enforced compliance program can provide a strong defense against false allegations that owners and management participated in or encouraged wrongdoing by lower lever employees because the owners and management can point to the compliance program that provides clear instruction that every employee is expected to adhere to the law and the standards of conduct that must be followed.
A more detailed description of what a compliance program entails and how it can provide protection to owners, CEOs, boards of directors, and officers can be accessed by clicking the following links.
The 8 Elements Needed for an Effective Compliance Program
The United States Attorneys Manual Section on Compliance Programs
