Tag Archives: Steve Solow

Three – No, Four – Important Revisions to the Department’s Policy on the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Efforts

by Bethany Hengsbach and Steve Solow

From left to right: Bethany Hengsbach, and Steve Solow. Photos courtesy of the authors.

In a speech at the Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement at NYU School of Law, Nicole Argentieri, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, announced key revisions to the March 2023 Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (ECCP). The September 17, 2024 speech was followed by the release of the updated ECCP on the DOJ website. The revised ECCP converts leading edge compliance efforts into standard operating procedures (SOPs) against which companies will be judged by the Department of Justice (DOJ) when making prosecution decisions. The primary changes include three new areas of focus, and a fourth important expansion of a pre-existing idea: Continue reading →

Looking Back at Fall 2023 PCCE Events: 3rd Annual Directors’ Academy

As we begin to prepare for a full schedule of events in 2024, starting with an event on Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy for Export Controls Violations on January 16, 2024, the NYU School of Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement (PCCE) is taking a moment to reflect on our busy Fall 2023 program. In this post: our third annual PCCE Directors’ Academy on September 21-22, 2023.

Photo of speaker

Keynote speaker Heather Lavallee, CEO, Voya Financial, Inc. (©Hollenshead: Courtesy of NYU Photo Bureau)

Continue reading →

What Does A Corporation Have to “Know” To Be Criminally Prosecuted? 

by Steve Solow

Up until around a month ago, if you asked law professors and white collar defense counsel “what does it take for a company to be held criminally liable,” for most serious felonies, you would most likely get an answer that there needs to be a person, who worked for or on behalf of a company, who committed a crime in connection with their job.  It’s the standard of respondeat superior, or vicarious liability, that has been in use at least since New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Co. v. United States was decided over one hundred years ago. 212 U.S. 481 (1909).

But a few weeks ago, in what might be an ironic move in light of the September memo from DAG Sally Yates (more on that in a moment), federal prosecutors succeeded in convicting Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) of criminal charges (knowing and willful criminal charges) using a theory of “corporate collective knowledge.” Continue reading →