Overseas & Out of Time: DOJ Reforms Boost Cross-Border Risk
Law360
Law360
Nate Mendell spoke to Law360 about the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recent revisions to its corporate criminal enforcement policies.
Nate said that during his time in the DOJ’s Corporate Crime Advisory Group (a panel that was tasked with considering revisions and reforms to the agency’s approach to corporate crime), one of the challenges he saw was the competing needs for predictability for defense counsel and workability for the department across the DOJ, with its many different offices divided by subject matter or geography, as well as the distinctive practices of different U.S. attorney’s offices.
The variety of work and opinions inside the department makes a rules-based approach to policy extremely difficult, according to Nate, who added that this leads to a standards-based system, with priorities like timely disclosure and a focus on individuals.
“These standards are relatively clear in the abstract, but in practice, I think they require a lot of trust between corporations and prosecutors,” Nate said.
Read the full article.