Media Mentions
2011
“The Importance of Splitting Legal and Compliance”
Competition Week, October 18, 2011
Joshua Buchman said that government prosecutors increasingly see the positions of chief legal and chief compliance officers “as being fundamentally different,” in part because if the compliance officer is also legal counsel “all the compliance-related activity is going to be presumptively cloaked in the attorney-client privilege, so the government can’t thoroughly investigate the issue.” Mr. Buchman held that when the positions are split each person “has to respect the responsibilities and priorities of the other.” To read the full article, please click here.
Joshua T. Buchman, White-Collar & Securities Defense
“McDermott’s Joshua Buchman on Exclusion and the Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine”
Corporate Crime Reporter, October 10, 2011
Joshua Buchman discussed increased federal prosecutor application of the responsible corporate officer doctrine to “assign personal individual responsibility to corporate executives and managers for the conduct of entities for which they work.” He said its use in the healthcare sector would be “not necessarily in a criminal sense,” but instead by the Office of Inspector General to address “excluding people from Medicare, Medicaid and other health care programs.” Mr. Buchman called this another example “of the government pushing the envelope and … expanding theories of liability in almost every aspect of health care enforcement.”
Joshua T. Buchman, Health, Health Care Law Reform
“Is Jenner & Block’s 22-Year-Old Qui Tam Case Finally Over?”
Reuters, July 28, 2011
Joshua Buchman argued successfully on appeal in the Seventh Circuit for Lockheed, one of two companies involved in long-running False Claims Act litigation over a sale of fighter jets to Greece.
Joshua T. Buchman, White-Collar & Securities Defense
“7th Circ. Nixes FCA Suit over F-16 Sales to Greece”
Law360, July 26, 2011
Joshua Buchman successfully represented Lockheed Martin as one of two companies for which the Seventh Circuit upheld dismissal of a qui tam lawsuit over a military jet sale to Greece funded by U.S. loans.
Joshua T. Buchman, White-Collar & Securities Defense
2009
Joshua Buchman was quoted by Corporate Board Member (Dec. 11) about the Justice Department's increased effort to hold individual directors and officers accountable for bad corporate behavior. "What we're talking about is strict liability offenses, primarily under the various environmental laws and under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act," he stated. As he described the message of prosecutors to directors, "If you were...in a position of responsibility at a company such that your position would afford you the ability to prevent or do something about...corporate violations of the law, then you could be held responsible...despite having no knowledge...and no intent that the corporation did anything wrong." Mr. Buchman advised officers to create a record showing that their compliance program efforts were "so state-of-the-art and so good that it would not be fair or appropriate" to prosecute them for such offenses.
Joshua T. Buchman, Corporate Responsibility and Governance
Joshua Buchman and Ankur Goel were both quoted in a June 19 Law360 story on recent changes to the False Claims Act. Mr. Buchman noted that companies no longer must deal directly with the U.S. government to have False Claims Act liability. “The bottom line is, just because you're one or two or even three levels removed from the entity doing business with the U.S. government, you're not safe,” he said. Mr. Goel thus urged companies to review their compliance programs to demonstrate “the kind of diligence the law contemplates … to show that they are aware of what they're supposed to be doing and have made a reasonable effort to put a system in place,” he said.
Joshua T. Buchman, Ankur J. Goel, Corporate Responsibility and Governance, Health, Trial
