Whistleblower Attorneys to Lead Seminars During Week Commemorating National Whistleblower Day

Whistleblowers and their advocates will gather next week for a series of events surrounding the annual celebration of National Whistleblower Day. This year organizers are holding events, from July 28 through July 31, in a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawmakers, agency leaders, and whistleblower advocates will put on seminars throughout the week to discuss the impact of whistleblowers and the challenges the world of whistleblowing faces today.

Several whistleblower lawyers from Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto will lead panels covering different whistleblower practice areas, including timely presentations concerning frauds surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and police whistleblowers.

Below are the panels featuring KKC partners and associates:

OSHA Whistleblowers and COVID-19

Stephen M. Kohn, a founding partner at KKC, interviews Professor and Former Dean at Northeastern University School of Law Emily Spieler about the whistleblower provisions of the Occupational and Health Safety Act (OSHA). Spieler, an expert on OSHA, discusses protections for whistleblowers in the age of COVID-19.

Being a Whistleblower Lawyer

Siri Nelson, the recipient of the 2019 Estelle S. Kohn Memorial Fellowship, awarded by the Northeastern University School of Law and a current legal fellow at KKC, interviews KKC founding partners Michael D. Kohn and Stephen M. Kohn about their experiences as whistleblower lawyers.

How to Get a Jury Trial as a Federal Employee

Michael D. Kohn, a founding partner at KKC, describes the challenges faced by whistleblowers who work for the federal government and how to properly bring a complaint that leads to a jury trial when retaliation involves discrimination.

The Story Behind National Whistleblower Day

Stephen M. Kohn retells the story of the nation’s first whistleblowers and the passage of the first whistleblower law in 1778, which he rediscovered during his original historical research for the New Whistleblower’s Handbook.

Kohn will be introduced by FBI whistleblower Jane Turner.

The Garcetti Trap: Police Department Whistleblowing

Noah Lapidus, the recipient of the 2020 Estelle S. Kohn Memorial Fellowship, awarded by the Northeastern University School of Law, a current legal fellow at KKC, describes the precedent set in Garcetti v. Ceballos, a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that public employees do not have a First Amendment protection for speech issued as part of their official duties.

Lapidus discusses the availability of First Amendment protections for police whistleblowers since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Garcetti decision, and how whistleblowers can report police misconduct despite Garcetti restrictions.

International Whistleblowing

KKC associate attorneys Maraya Best and Kelsey Condon are joined by journalist Mark Worth, the Executive Director, Whistleblowing International, to discuss international whistleblower protection laws and the global applicability of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other U.S. whistleblower laws.

IRS Tax Whistleblower Program – The Basics With A Focus On Offshore Accounts

Dean Zerbe, a senior policy analyst for the National Whistleblower Center and expert in IRS whistleblower law, describes the IRS tax whistleblower program and how tax violations in offshore accounts can be reported.

International Whistleblower Rights Program: South Korea’s Tax Whistleblower Reward Law

Youjin Yoon, a law clerk at KKC, interviews Deputy Director and Delegate to IBFD Netherlands at the National Tax Service of Korea, Joohyun Baek, about Korea’s tax whistleblower law.

Tools for Whistleblowers

Stephen Kohn joins a panel of experts during a live National Whistleblower Day presentation on July 30^th to discuss the current state of whistleblower protection. The panel will answer questions such as “How do whistleblower reward laws impact compliance programs?” And, “What are the most significant barriers to enlisting whistleblowers to address corruption?”

For more information and register for the virtual National Whistleblower Day 2020 celebration, visit the official National Whistleblower Day website.