A Focus on Multinationals: Adding Enterprise Value Through Global Whistleblower Protocols and Promoting Employer Values
Client Alert | 1 min read | 11.12.21
Whistleblower activity—including new whistleblower laws—has increased in recent years; however, the number of internal whistleblower complaints has fallen. Internal whistleblower complaints are an opportunity for employers to correct misconduct, noncompliance, or other workplace problems as they happen. While this presents a challenge for employers, it is also an opportunity to reevaluate internal policies, training, and workplace culture. In this article, the second installment of a two-part series, Director of Global Corporate Compliance for Corning, Inc., Dan Christmas, along with Crowell’s Preston Pugh, Trina Fairley-Barlow, and Rachel Lesser, discuss strategies for maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks of increased whistleblower activity. Part one of this series, available here, reviews the rise in whistleblower bounty laws and other laws designed to incentivize reporting.
Contacts
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
