Third Thursday--C&M's April Labor & Employment Update - The SEC Challenges Employer Confidentiality Protections

Please join us for the next edition of Third Thursday – Crowell & Moring’s Labor and Employment Update, a webinar series dedicated to helping our clients stay on top of developing law and emerging compliance issues.

Employer attempts to protect confidential company information are increasingly under attack by federal government agencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has now addressed the issue, with an enforcement initiative suggesting that certain company policies and agreements with their employees about protecting sensitive information are instead used to muzzle whistleblowers. The SEC just announced a settlement with a multinational corporation that requires the company to pay a hefty fine and make changes to its allegedly overbroad confidentiality agreements. This announcement came on the heels of the news that the SEC is requiring certain companies to turn over all documents from the last five years that may impact an employee’s ability to report issues to the SEC. 

The SEC’s actions should be considered in the context of several high-profile lawsuits filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging certain agreements between employers and employees improperly chill efforts by those employees to bring EEOC charges.
This webinar will discuss these agency initiatives and will provide insights on best practices for protecting confidential information in this new climate of agency scrutiny. Dan Zelenko, a partner in our White Collar and Regulatory Enforcement Group and former SEC enforcement lawyer, will join our normal roundtable of lawyers from our Labor and Employment Group for this webinar. Dan will provide an insider’s perspective on the SEC’s efforts and will provide practical advice for companies navigating through this difficult issue.

This webinar is scheduled for the third Thursday of April, Thursday, April 16 at 12:00 pm Eastern. We hope that you can join us and participate in a lively discussion of these issues.

Please click here to listen to a recording of the webinar. Please click here for a copy of the presentation.