Tag Archives: Veronica Root Martinez

Do the DOJ’s Sticks and Carrots Actually Work?

by Veronica Root Martinez

Photos of the author

Photo courtesy of the author

Arguably one of the most important developments within the compliance industry of the past several years is a greater reliance on data and measurement.  Both scholars and leaders within the compliance industry have argued that firms should spend time and effort empirically assessing whether the systems within their compliance programs are actually working.  For example, Professors Brandon Garrett and Gregory Mitchell have argued for more “evidence-based compliance” efforts.[1]  Additionally, Professors Benjamin van Rooij and Melissa Rorie have articulated the trade-offs “involved in using different quantitative and qualitative approaches to measure corporate compliance and its predictors.”[2]  And industry leader Hui Chen has argued that companies “should avoid treating their compliance programs like a checklist and focus on ethics, metrics and measurable results.”[3]

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Compliance Implications of the Government’s Pursuit of Information

by Veronica Root Martinez

For the past several years, I have been working on a set of projects aimed at strengthening ethics, compliance, and governance programs and processes within corporations.  At the outset of my research, I sought to identify possible ex ante incentives to address corporate misconduct or compliance failures. I then turned to how best to engage in root-cause analysis after a compliance failure occurred, and I next focused on internal governance mechanisms that seemed to contribute to significant and widespread compliance failures. 

In this blog post, I will briefly outline the project to-date and then turn to the most-recent addition to this body of work, which again focuses on ex ante incentives for firms to engage in the creation and implementation of effective ethics and compliance programs. 

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Teaching Compliance Part III of III

by Veronica Root Martinez

This is the third in a three-part series describing my experience teaching compliance at Notre Dame Law School.

This semester, I have been teaching a new compliance course in Notre Dame’s London Law Program.  Notre Dame Law students have the opportunity to come to London for the semester or year, and one regular faculty member, in addition to the director of our program, is in residence in London each semester.  As you can imagine, many of the courses offered to students have an international focus.  To keep with this norm, I’m teaching a course I’ve entitled Global Compliance Survey. Continue reading →

Teaching Compliance Part II of III

by Veronica Root Martinez

This is the second in a three-part series describing my experience teaching compliance at Notre Dame Law School.

A fair question one might have had about my description of my Corporate Compliance & Ethics course is why I include readings in behavioural ethics and professional responsibility.

With regards to the behavioural ethics component, it is important for students to think through how unethical or noncompliant behaviour occurs.  The behavioural ethics literature makes plain that anyone can fall prey to unethical decision-making.  I like laying this foundation—that anyone can make poor decisions—because students often think that misconduct within firms is committed by a special group of bad actors.  It can be, but it may also be committed by people who “think” there are good reasons that justify their behaviour. Continue reading →

Teaching Compliance Part I of III

by Veronica Root Martinez 

This is the first in what is a three-part series of blog posts describing my experience teaching compliance at Notre Dame Law School.

I first began teaching a compliance course in the fall of 2015.  At the time, there were not many compliance courses being taught within law schools, and I was aware of only one casebook on the subject.  I began, as many professors do, by gathering syllabi from individuals currently teaching the topic.  Most of the syllabi I was able to obtain were of courses taught by practitioners that included significant skills-based components, which, although valuable, was not where I wanted to focus.

Instead, I decided to tackle teaching the course in a manner that I hoped would allow students to think through the different roles they might play within compliance efforts, followed by a few classes dedicated to specific compliance areas in an attempt to allow students to better understand how their role might look in practice.  To do so, I draw on enforcement, compliance, behavioural ethics, and professional responsibility materials.  Each class session has one dedicated case study to help students understand the concept being presented. Continue reading →