Monday, July 24, 2017

Note:  I joined a panel last week at the Solo & Small Firm Section Annual Conference of the Pennsylvania Bar Association which was providing "hot tips" with late-breaking developments in several practice areas.  My area, naturally, was employment law.  Over the next few weeks, I'll highlight a few of these tips in greater detail.

Whistleblowers:  There are two types of whistleblowers under the Dodd-Frank Act.  The first type consists of those whistleblowers who only report internally within a company of irregularities, and the second type consists of those whistleblowers to make external reports to agencies such as provided for under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  To date, there has been a split among the circuit courts of appeals as to whether the retaliation provisions of Dodd-Frank extend to both types of whistleblowers, or only those who make external reports.

On June 26, 2017 the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v. Somers.  You can find the petition for certiorari here.

Presumably some time next term of the United States Supreme Court we will get a definitive answer to the question.

1 comment: