As the roles and responsibilities of compliance and legal overlap, and as the role of the chief compliance officer continues to gain profile, how the CCO and general counsel work together is more important than ever, writes Karen Kroll.
Karen Kroll
Posted inEthics & Culture
Experts talk on boosting hotline effectiveness
A recent hotline analysis from NAVEX Global has identified ways in which companies could improve their helpline programs, including shortening the median case closure time. Karen Kroll provides an in-depth look at the results.
Posted inUncategorized
Unpacking the Reporting Challenge in Patent Boxes
Image: For businesses heavy on intellectual property, “patent boxes” are the new tool in your tax strategy—jurisdictions that offer lower taxes on income flowing from IP. A nifty idea, many say (and one that may hit the United States soon), but the compliance and disclosure hurdles are many. The value gained from using a patent box must be enough to make the move worth it, says Ryan Dudley at the accounting firm Friedman.
Posted inInternal Controls
Refresher Course on Discipline of Good Investigations
Image: The damage wrought by inept internal investigations can go well beyond wasted time and money; they can cause civil litigation, enforcement risk, and bad publicity. This week we have a refresher on principles for good internal investigations, something every compliance officer must know how to do well. “Ninety percent of problems are solved if you think about everything before you [start],” says Christopher Madel of the law firm Robins Kaplan.
Posted inFrom the Archive
How to Impose a Travel Policy Without Strangling Anyone
Compliance officers can pick fights with employees over any number of workplace policies. But if you really want daggers drawn and subversive battles at every turn—impose a policy on business travel. Inside, we look at how to defuse that policy management time bomb, as well as the collateral legal damage caused by a policy that ignores new tax and liability risks.
Posted inEthics & Culture
OECD Updates Views on Governance
The OECD has received an earful about proposed revisions to its principles of corporate governance, guidelines it encourages countries to adopt much the way they already follow its principles for anti-corruption. Some say the revisions dwell too much on company-level reforms, and not enough at the country-level to allow flexible application of them. More inside.
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Insider-Trading Risks Get More Complicated
Image: The appellate court decision to overturn insider-trading convictions of two Wall Streeters brings clarity to some aspects of the crime. It does not, however, reduce insider-trading risks. Yes, the ruling narrows the scope of such offenses, but “a compliance officer would have to be out of his mind to tell the organization that there has been a lightening of standards regarding liability,” says Richard Spinogatti of the law firm Proskauer Rose.
Posted inAnti-Bribery
SEC Whistleblower Program’s Latest Threat: Its Success
Corporate compliance officers may have a new reason to be uncomfortable with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower program: how well it appears to be working. Tips are flooding into the SEC, including 3,620 in fiscal year 2014 alone. “The SEC has institutionally embraced the whistleblower statute,” says Brian Kenney, senior partner with Kenney & McCafferty.
Posted inAnti-Bribery
Are Your Business Partners Letting the Hackers In?
For Target, it was a heating and air conditioning company. At a large oil company it was a nearby Chinese restaurant. Hackers increasingly use third-party relationships to gain access to computer networks and steal data. The trend means that companies need to conduct even better due diligence on third-party relationships than they do already. And here’s the hard part: Even the smallest, most insignificant relationship can be the avenue for a breach. More inside.
Posted inEthics & Culture
Making Codes of Conduct More Usable and Engaging
Image: Title: BanksMany companies are looking to breathe more life into their staid and dusty codes of conduct. They’re cutting out the legal language and paying more attention to design and usability. Some leading companies are putting them online with multi-media aspects, including videos. “You want to present information so it’s interesting to the average employee, not a lawyer or compliance geek,” says Ted Banks, partner at law firm Scharf Banks Marmor.