Litigators Provide Insight into Justice Department’s New Safe Harbor Policy

On October 4, in a speech delivered remotely at the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics conference in Chicago, Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco continued the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent trend of rolling out initiatives to incentivize corporate disclosure of misconduct by announcing a Department-wide Safe Harbor Policy for voluntary self-disclosure made in the context of the mergers and acquisitions process.

In an article for Bloomberg Law, litigation and enforcement partners Maria Calvet, Laura Hoey, and Ryan Rohlfsen, and associate Nathalia Sosa provide insight into the mandates of the Safe Harbor Policy and key takeaways for companies integrating newly acquired companies into existing compliance frameworks.

The attorneys noted that under the Policy, companies are expected to conduct robust diligence; compliance does not stop at the signing table, compliance is not a check-the-box exercise; voluntary self-disclosure is not without risk; and announcement calls for all DOJ offices to establish Safe Harbor Policy within respected enforcement regimes.