Workforce Bulletin

The Supreme Court has opened up an enormous pool of potential whistleblower claimants against employers who might not otherwise be covered by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (“SOX”). Reversing the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court has held, in Lawson v. FMR (pdf), that the SOX whistleblower protection provisions set forth in 18 U.S.C. §1514A protect the employees of private companies that contract with public companies that are directly covered by the Act. The decision is consistent with that of the Administrative Review Board in Spinner v. David Landau & ...