Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto attorneys have offered guidance to foreign lawmakers drafting whistleblower legislation, appeared on panels at international conventions, and repeatedly met with foreign government officials to explain the key role whistleblowers can play in rooting out misconduct and corruption.

In 2019, the European Parliament passed a landmark Whistleblowing Directive requiring all European Union (EU) member nations to pass whistleblower legislation that align with the Directive’s standards for anti-retaliation laws and safe channels for reporting.

Since before the Directive even passed, the pro bono team at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto has offered its expertise on whistleblower law and advocated for the strongest and most effective whistleblower provisions.

In late 2018 and early 2019, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto’s pro bono team sent two letters to the Presidents of the European Parliament and the European Commission on behalf of the National Whistleblower Center. The letters explained that draft proposals for the Whistleblower Directive included dangerous internal reporting requirements that needed revision. According to the letters, the requirements “undermines the rule of law, violates international anti-corruption conventions, [and] violates U.S. securities laws applicable to numerous European companies.”

Furthermore, in November 2018, KKC founding partner Stephen M. Kohn testified before the European Parliament as an expert on whistleblower legislation. “The EU should harmonize Europe’s whistleblower protections with the highly effective whistleblower laws that are part of the U.S. tax code (covering illegal offshore banking and money laundering) and the Dodd-Frank Act (covering the financial services industry, publicly traded corporations, most banks, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act),” Kohn explained.

Thanks in part to Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto’s advocacy, the final EU Whistleblower Directive revised the proposed internal reporting requirements. The final Directive still leaves ambiguity in its requirements, therefore, the attorneys of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto have continued to advocate for individual EU countries to pass the strongest and most effective whistleblower laws.

In September 2020, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto’s pro bono team wrote to each EU member country providing guidance and recommendations on whistleblower legislation. The guidance included expanding whistleblower protections to cover disclosures permitted under international anti-corruption conventions signed by Member States, narrowly interpreting the EU Directive’s Article 22 in order to ensure that whistleblowers are not chilled from making disclosures and their confidentiality is maintained, and enacting whistleblower reward laws to combat specific legal violations, including foreign bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, government procurement fraud, and ocean pollution.

As part of the firm’s pro bono advocacy, attorneys at Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto have met with foreign officials to explain the importance of strong whistleblower laws and to detail the specifics of legislation and policy.

For example, through the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto lawyers have met with government officials from around the globe, including Libya, Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Nepal, Israel, Bangladesh, Estonia, Guyana, Brazil, Hungary, Vietnam, Slovakia, Kenya, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Italy, and Rwanda.

In addition to advising foreign officials on whistleblowing, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto also works to educate the global public about whistleblowing as part of its pro bono efforts. Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto attorneys have addressed anti-corruption groups, spoken at industry conferences, and taught courses on whistleblowing.

For example, in May 2022, KKC founding partner Stephen M. Kohn presented at the World Justice Forum and at the United Kingdom’s Association of Corporate Investigators hosting a Banking Investigators Forum. Kohn has also participated in International Anti-Corruption Academy panels and courses.