Compare a whistleblower policy with the Sarbanes-Oxley and Exchange Act provisions
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- Set the policy the lawyer supplies beside 18 U.S.C. § 1514A and 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6 and list each place the policy is silent or uses a narrower path than the statute. Do not rewrite the policy that the company adopts.
- What the lawyer must review
- 18 U.S.C. § 1514A protects a lawful disclosure, about the securities, mail, wire, or bank fraud and shareholder-fraud conduct the section names, when the employee provides it to a federal regulatory or law-enforcement agency, to Congress, or to a person with supervisory authority or with authority to investigate, discover, or terminate misconduct. The covered employer is a company registered under section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act or required to report under section 15(d), including a subsidiary or affiliate in the consolidated financial statements, a nationally recognized statistical rating organization, and an officer, employee, contractor, subcontractor, or agent of such a company or organization. A complaint may be filed with the Secretary of Labor, and the statute states a 180-day commencement period. 15 U.S.C. § 78u-6 defines a whistleblower by a submission of information relating to a violation of the securities laws to the Commission, in a manner the Commission establishes, and separately prohibits retaliation for providing information to the Commission, assisting a Commission action, or making disclosures required or protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the other laws named in subsection (h). An award provision applies to a covered action with monetary sanctions exceeding $1,000,000, subject to the rest of the section. A policy that describes only one of these paths is not a statement of both statutes. The lawyer decides what the policy will say. The tool does not decide that a particular disclosure is protected.
- Written for / version
- United States versionUS
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Potential support includes organising research leads. Confirm the tool’s capability and permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Open each relied-on authority independently. Confirm its existence, current status, proposition and any quotation or pinpoint reference.
- Trace every relied-on figure to its source, confirm dates and assumptions, and independently recalculate totals or derived amounts.
- Calculate operative dates independently from the current rule and actual triggering event. Check exceptions and record the verified deadline.
- Check the current court or regulator requirements, prescribed form and attachments for the intended document and filing.
- Review operative clauses in the complete document, including definitions, cross-references, schedules and inconsistencies with the instructions.
- Obtain and inspect the relevant current official register or search result. Confirm identities, interests and the date and scope of the search.
- Verify the applicable jurisdiction and the version of each relevant law, rule or instrument in force at the material time.
- Confirm the output against the client’s instructions and the complete relevant source material, including omissions or contradictions.
- Resolve exceptions and record the responsible lawyer’s approval of the exact output and intended use.