On its first day in office, the Biden Administration directed a freeze on pending regulations and directed agencies to review pending and proposed regulations to assure pending regulations are consistent the its policy goals. The freeze directed that: Federal Agencies will not propose or issue new rules until an official, designated by the President, approves…
On April 27, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order requiring federal contractors to pay a $15.00/hour minimum wage impacting about 390,000 employees of federal contractors. Estimates project it may lead to an average pay increase for annual, hourly workers of $3,100. Overall, the EO will result in a significant wage jump of almost a…
Margaret and The Candid Counsel crew put together many terrifying tales of just what it takes to frighten your friendly attorney. In no particular order Margaret’s classic tales of terror include: Writing emails to your lawyer joking about who in the company will look good in an orange jumpsuit. Conduct your own internal investigation without…
According to FAR Part 16, the Federal Government uses fixed-price contracts when it wants to place most of the risk and responsibility for performance on the contractor. This means that fixed-price contracts are generally not subject to being adjusted as a result of the contractor’s costs or profits increasing or decreasing in performance. As a…
Given my practice as an ethics and compliance lawyer, white-collar defense lawyer, I am getting barraged with questions on the college scandal: Why would someone pay a bribe like this? Why would someone accept a bribe? Where are the people with integrity? Did they not think they would get caught? How did the colleges “let”…
A lot of organizations have helplines where employees or others can call to ask questions or raise ethical or legal concerns. Anyone who has ever reviewed the information from these helplines or responded to the calls know just how diverse and, frankly, crazy some of the calls can be. It is not surprising that crazy…
I cannot look back on the happenings of corporate crime these past few years without commenting on the best bond revocation of possibly ever. Pharma Bro posted $5 million in bond to remain free pending his trial. (See 2018’s Most Noteworthy Conviction) However, while out on bond, on his Facebook page, which has about 70,000…
How a company treats employees who bring forth concerns is strong evidence of that company’s propensity to make legal and ethical decisions. A company that welcomes hearing about concerns and issues breeds trust with its employees and other stakeholders like investors and regulators. As a result, employees may share their concerns with an organization before…
The FBI raid on Michael Cohen’s law offices is the most noteworthy search warrant of 2018 for two reasons. First, because Michael Cohen was the president’s lawyer for years. Second, because it opened the eyes of many, to include some lawyers, to the fact that although there is an attorney-client privilege, it can…
From my worldview, one of the most noteworthy “when the writ hits the fan” convictions of the year was the conviction of Pharma Bro’s (Martin Shkreli) lawyer and big law partner Evan Greebel. A jury convicted Mr. Greebel of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud for his actions in helping…