Events
Duane Morris Special Counsel Michael Clark to Moderate Panel on "The Responsible Corporate Officers Doctrine: New and Evolving Threats Facing In-House Counsel"
May 17, 2012 | San Francisco
| Hotel Nikko
Duane Morris special counsel Michael Clark will serve as moderator for a panel discussion on "The Responsible Corporate Officers Doctrine: New and Evolving Threats Facing In-House Counsel" at the American Bar Association's (ABA) Fourth National Institute on Internal Corporate Investigations and Forum for In-House Counsel on Thursday, May 17, 2012.
This intensive National Institute remains unparalleled in its dissection of the pressing issues that define corporate internal investigations. A preeminent faculty comprised of in-house & outside counsel, and government lawyers along with forensic accountants and investigators will share their insights and experiences surrounding corporate investigations. Attendees will learn strategies to avoid new threats facing in-house counsel; gain practical knowledge about the Responsible Corporate Officers Doctrine; and increase familiarity with current compliance and fraud investigation procedures.
Having started as a rarely-used prosecutorial contrivance to impose strict liability for misdemeanors, the responsible corporate officer doctrine has significantly expanded after being championed by regulators and prosecutors as a means of establishing the liability of corporate officers—including general counsel—for administrative and civil penalties, and in the area of environmental crimes, for felonies. Aptly called the "crime of doing nothing," the doctrine focuses on an individual’s position in an organization, retrospectively imposing a non-delegable duty to prevent violations. Recently, the FDA and the OIG for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services published "guidance" about factors they will consider, respectively, in determining whether to seek misdemeanor convictions for violations of the federal Food and Drug laws and/or exclusion from participation in federal health benefit programs. Soon afterwards, the OIG has excluded corporate executives of pharmaceutical companies—including a general counsel— based on misdemeanor FDCA violations. This interactive panel will examine the dangers and flashpoints of the doctrine for corporate counsel and the key company decision-makers they work with, and strategies to avoid or minimize being the next target of one of these actions.
For more information, or to register, please visit the ABA website.
