Organizational Integrity Group Blog

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Jonathan Aronie
Townsend Bourne
David Douglass
David T. Fischer
Jason Hoggan
Scot Huntsberry*
A. Joseph Jay, III
Erica Kraus
Charles Kreindler
Christopher Loveland
J. Scott Maberry
Bill Mateja
Lisa Mays
Keeley A. McCarty
Fatema Merchant
Sheppard Mullin
Michael Paddock
Scott Roybal
Kate Rumsey
Kathleen Stratton
Barbara Taylor
Emily Theriault
Reid Whitten

Latest from Organizational Integrity Group Blog

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Aristotle said “well begun is half done.” About 2,300 years later, Mary Poppins shared the same advice with her young charges, Jane and Michael. The adage generally is understood to mean that a thoughtful and disciplined start puts a project in a good position for success. With apologies to Aristotle (and Mary), the members of Sheppard Mullin’s Organizational Integrity Group use the same adage as a warning. In our experience, well begun is only half the battle. This month’s OIG Shorts discusses the importance of the activities that take place toward the end of — or after — an internal…
Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: The Importance of Post-Investigation Activities

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The research is clear. A good decision with a bad outcome is likely to be viewed – by others and by the decision-makers themselves – as a bad decision in hindsight. Equally so, a bad decision with a good outcome is likely to be viewed as a good decision in hindsight. Both views, however, are wrong – and, if allowed to persevere unchecked, can lead to all manner of flawed decisions going forward.

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Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Good Plans that go Awry or why we Conflate Bad Outcomes with Bad Decisions

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Let’s say you’re a publicly traded manufacturer of a popular medical device, which you sell commercially as well as to a number of VA hospitals. You receive an anonymous internal hotline complaint alleging that certain unauthorized, reverse-engineered components were used in the manufacturing process and that certain quality tests were skipped in the interest of “efficiency.” You triage the complaint, do your preliminary diligence, determine the complaint isn’t frivolous, and launch a privileged internal investigation.
Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Don’t Just Let the Dominoes Fall; Understand the Paths They Might Take

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Too often people argue as though they are in front of a judge, or some other cosmic arbiter of correctness, rather than asking ourselves what might move our opponent. In this edition of OIG Shorts, the Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP Organizational Integrity Group explains that to increase our chances of moving our opponent, we need to recalibrate our goals, rethink our strategy, and reframe the discussion.
Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: The Science of Persuasion

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Investigations are stressful for an organization’s leadership. But what is often overlooked is that they are stressful for an organization’s employees as well. The need-to-know nature of internal investigations usually restricts knowledge of the investigation’s character, scope, and potential consequences to a relatively small circle of senior management. But the employees who fall within the scope of the investigation will often know little about what’s going on, which can generate anxiety, impair morale, and create tensions in the workplace, further leading to negative repercussions for the organization that persist long after the investigation has been closed.
Continue Reading The Close-Out Debrief

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In the 10th edition of the “OIG Shorts” series, Sheppard Mullin’s Organizational Integrity Group continues its exploration of a number of complex compliance matters with a discussion on Setting the Table for Good Decision-Making: And Making Sure the Chief Legal Officer Has a Seat at It. This post discusses why it’s important that Chief Legal Officers and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officers have meaningful, real-time involvement in the key legal, organizational, reputational, and business discussions/decisions of their companies, as well as direct access to the Chief Executive Officer and the Board.
Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: A Seat at the Table

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This month, Sheppard Mullin’s Organizational Integrity Group continued its exploration of a number of complex compliance matters as part of their “OIG Shorts” series with a discussion on Understanding the Various Layers of a Targeted Compliance Program. This post discusses the importance of a targeted, multi-layered compliance program focused at individual deals, sales, contracts, etc. – as distinguished from the equally important company-wide E&C program previously discussed.
Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Understanding the Various Layers of a Targeted Compliance Program

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On February 22, 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a new nation-wide policy to incentivize companies to self-report criminal activity. Among the cited benefits of self-reporting are discounts on fines and non-prosecution agreements. This new policy arrives on the heels of the “Monaco Memo,” issued in September 2022 by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, which directed each prosecutorial DOJ component to review its policies on corporate voluntary self-disclosures and update to reflect the guidance’s core principles. The policy also is in addition to guidance from Attorney General Merrick Garland, who in December 2022 emphasized prosecutorial leniency…
Continue Reading Corporate Voluntary Self-Disclosure of Criminal Activity: More of the Same or a Real Sea Change?

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Over the past few months, the OIG shorts series focused on structuring and implementing a comprehensive and effective ethics and compliance program. Many times, this requires a mindset shift from a checking-the-box mentality to a wholistic approach in which everyone feels they have an important role to play. Nowhere is this more apropos than in the area of cybersecurity including developing a data security strategy and maintaining an effective incident response plan.
Continue Reading Ethics & Compliance: Let’s Talk About Cybersecurity

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This blog was originally published in Law360.

On November 18, 2022, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Davila sentenced Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes to over 11 years in prison for fraud. Judge Davila, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said the harsh sentence was justified because investors in Silicon Valley startup companies should be able to expect to take “risks free from fraud.” In explaining his sentence, Judge Davila painted a vivid picture of a culture of fraud inside Theranos, driven by Ms. Holmes’s “hubris” and “loss of a moral compass.”[1] From…
Continue Reading When Organizational Culture Goes Wrong: A Federal Judge’s Vivid Description of Cultural Decay Inside Theranos

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There is a compliance obligation that is sometimes honored in the breach: regular compliance self‐assessments. In this edition of OIG Shorts, the Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP Organizational Integrity Group explains why such self-assessments are valuable and the reasons to make a timely self-assessment part of your organization’s New Year’s resolutions.

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Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Compliance Self-Assessments

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Many business leaders still view Ethics & Compliance as a cost center rather than a cost reducer. This thinking can create quite the hurdle for CECOs looking to secure a meaningful E&C budget. In this edition of OIG Shorts, the Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP Organizational Integrity Group offers up some ammo to CECOs for their internal budgeting discussions.

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Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Ethics & Compliance Program Funding

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Previous installments of OIG Shorts addressed practical approaches to creating a more effective Ethics & Compliance program. The sixth installment of OIG Shorts focuses on the importance of measuring the efficacy of the program.

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Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Measuring The Efficacy Of Your Ethics & Compliance Program  

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In our decades working with complex organizations on their Ethics & Compliance (E&C) programs, my colleagues and I have seen a wide variety of structures. While we readily concede there is no one way to structure an E&C program, we have come to believe there are a few traits common to the best programs. Our fourth installment of OIG Shorts reviews traits common to the best programs.

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Continue Reading Organizational Integrity Shorts: Structure Matters

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