Corporate legal and compliance departments have reason to celebrate a recent federal appeals court ruling affirming that companies have cause to terminate employees who refuse to cooperate in internal investigations. The decision is beneficial to any company that faces allegations of corporate misconduct and is seeking cooperation credit during a government investigation.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...