George Breen, a Member of the Firm in the Health Care and Life Science and Litigation practices, in the Washington, DC, office, and Deepa Selvam, an Associate in the Health Care and Life Sciences practice, in the Washington, DC, office, co-wrote an article titled "Life Under the Monitor's Microscope: A Renewed Focus on Corporate Compliance."

Reprinted with permission from Corporate Compliance Insights.

Following is an excerpt:

The use of corporate monitors, as required by many deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) and non-prosecution agreements (NPAs), continues to be a powerful government tool in the oversight of compliance with settlement terms and the law.

A review by Reuters of the 39 DPAs reached with the Obama Department of Justice found that 13 included a monitor requirement. Monitors have been assigned to a myriad of industries including health care organizations, such as hospitals, health plans, medical technology companies, and home health companies.

As set forth in guidance issued by the Justice Department, the primary responsibility of a monitor "is to assess and monitor a corporation's compliance with the terms of the agreement specifically designed to address and reduce the risk of recurrence of the corporation's misconduct, and not to further punitive goals."

Monitorships are becoming such a reality in corporate America that even a giant like Wal-Mart may soon be faced participating in one. Given this backdrop, we offer some items to consider if your organization is currently under a corporate monitorship or if a corporate monitor is in your future.

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.