Our client, Dr. Kimberly Brown, who is president and CEO of Baltimore-based Amethyst Technologies, was featured in an article in the Baltimore Times on May 13, 2016. Dr. Brown founded the company in 2006, and it now has annual revenue of about $2 million and clients that include the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research,...
Tag: Corporate Compliance
OSHA Penalties to Increase With Inflation — After 25 Years
We recently wrote about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new rules on inhalable silica, which will take effect in June. By August, another important change in OSHA enforcement will also take place – one that any company regulated by OSHA needs to be aware of. For the first time in more than 25 years,...
A Compliance Checklist for Federal Contractors — Part 1
We may not often think of them this way, but government contractors are perhaps the most heavily regulated sector of our economy. Any company that wishes to work steadily in the federal contracting field needs to be aware of dozens of statutes that govern its behavior. In fact, it will take more than one...
Government Contractors Must Beware of New DOJ Prosecution Guidelines
By Pamela J. Bethel We recently discussed the new emphasis that the U.S. Department of Justice is placing on the prosecution of individuals in white-collar crime cases. As we pointed out, the new guidelines, set forth in a speech last month by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, represent a get-tough attitude toward corporate crime. It’s...
Deputy AG’s Speech Puts Focus on Prosecution of Individuals
By Pamela J. Bethel In a much-publicized speech on September 10 at the New York University School of Law, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates set forth what she said was a new Justice Department policy to go after “not just corporate entities, but also the individuals through which these corporations act.” The new guidelines,...
Prospective Contractors and Subcontractors: Be Aware of TINA
By Taimur Rabbani Is your business pursuing a U.S. government contract, or seeking to subcontract for a U.S. government contractor? There are several legal and regulatory schemes that you should be aware of that are relevant to this process. Among the most significant of them are the regulations implementing the Truth in Negotiations Act (TINA)....
Texas Court Was Right: These Internal Reports Enjoy Absolute Privilege
Companies that prepare internal reports at the request of the Department of Justice, discussing the likelihood of criminal violations, should be able to benefit from absolute privilege that shields them from defamation suits brought by people named in the reports. That is what the law should be; otherwise, companies would not feel free to conduct...
Counsel Needs to Focus on Developing Company’s Legal IQ
By Carol L. O’Riordan A current article in Corporate Counsel magazine asks the critical question: What’s your company’s legal IQ? The article points out that these days, legal issues are often quite diffused within sizable companies, so that managers don’t always recognize them as such. In addition, corporate legal departments haven’t necessarily done a good job...
As DOJ Gets Tough on Fraud, Compliance Needs to Ramp Up
By Pamela J. Bethel On September 17, 2014, Leslie Caldwell, assistant U.S. attorney general in charge of the Criminal Division, addressed many key issues about the federal False Claims Act in a major speech at the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund Conference in Washington, D.C. The Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund brings together whistleblowers who...
Compliance Issues in Government Contracts: Not Just for the Lawyers
By Carol L. O’Riordan It’s clear from a great many recent news articles that if you are a government contractor, putting in a successful bid and being selected for a contract is only the beginning. A great many requirements, some of them onerous, come with a federal contract, including compliance with applicable laws and regulations....