Under the attorney conduct rules adopted by the SEC following Sarbanes-Oxley, there are limited circumstances under which attorneys may be obligated to “report out” – i.e., blow the whistle to the SEC – on client misconduct. These obligations are not consistent with many states’ ethics rules, but the SEC brushed those concerns aside by saying that its rules preempted those standards. Now, according to a recent “Dimensions” article, the federal courts are starting to weigh in:
A California federal court held that in-house counsel could be a whistleblower under the federal statutes because the SEC rules preempt the state’s very strict duty of confidentiality. The case is on appeal and, the authors surmise, the holding will be limited because counsel reported internally, not to the SEC, before being fired (and thus falling outside the Dodd-Frank definition of a whistleblower).
Timing is also key to a case now pending in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In-house counsel seeks Dodd-Frank protection from retaliation for reporting to the SEC while still an employee. The company has counterargued that, prior to the report, it gave notice that counsel would be fired. A decision in the District of New Jersey denied Dodd-Frank protection to an attorney fired for reporting to FINRA, rejecting the argument that this was tantamount to reporting to the SEC, which supervises FINRA, while still employed.
The article notes that the 9th Circuit subsequently remanded the California federal court’s decision, affirming it in part and remanding it in part. There is a Sheppard Mullin blog that has more details on the case.
-John Jenkins, TheCorporateCounsel.net July 6, 2019
