Jennifer Kennedy Park

Jennifer Kennedy Park’s practice focuses on white-collar defense, enforcement actions and complex civil litigation.

Firm/Organization: Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Latest Articles

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Longer Time Limits for Non-intervened FCA Actions

By Jennifer Kennedy Park, Breon S. Peace & Lisa Vicens on May 14, 2019

On May 13, 2019, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Cochise Consultancy, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Hunt with respect to the applicable statute of limitations in a FCA action in which the Government has declined to intervene. The FCA sets forth two limitation periods applicable to FCA actions and provides that an action must be brought within the longer of either (i) within 6 years after the date on which the violation…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

DOJ Issues Guidance on Cooperation In False Claims Act Investigations

By Jennifer Kennedy Park, Breon S. Peace & Lisa Vicens on May 9, 2019

On May 7, 2019, the Department of Justice issued formal guidance to DOJ’s False Claims Act litigators on the circumstances in which DOJ will grant credit for cooperation during FCA investigations. The guidance explains the factors that DOJ considers in determining whether to award cooperation credit in FCA investigations and the types of credit available. Please click here to read the full alert memorandum.…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

SDNY Judge Finds Government “Outsourcing” of Investigation to External Counsel Runs Afoul of Fifth Amendment

By Breon S. Peace, Victor L. Hou, Jennifer Kennedy Park, Rahul Mukhi & Nowell D. Bamberger on May 7, 2019

On May 2, 2019, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an important decision delineating the boundaries between conducting a proper internal investigation and acting as an arm of the government. For the government, the consequences of “outsourcing” an investigation to a company and its counsel could be exclusion of evidence collected as a result of that internal investigation, including statements made by a company employee in an interview,…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

DOJ Guidance on Corporate Compliance Programs: A Checklist for Directors

By Jennifer Kennedy Park, Joon H. Kim, Jonathan S. Kolodner & Lisa Vicens on May 6, 2019

As discussed in our most recent blog post, on April 30, 2019, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ” or “the Department”) announced updated guidance for the Criminal Division’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (“the Guidance”). The Guidance is relevant to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in conducting an investigation of a corporation, determining whether to bring charges, negotiating plea or other agreements, applying sentencing guidelines and appointing monitors.[1] The…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

DOJ Updates Guidance for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs

By Jennifer Kennedy Park, Joon H. Kim, Jonathan S. Kolodner & Lisa Vicens on May 3, 2019

On April 30, 2019, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice announced updated guidance for the Criminal Division’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (“the Guidance”) in charging and resolving criminal cases. This memorandum highlights key updates and discusses the themes present across versions of the Guidance. Overall, this newest version places greater emphasis on distilling “lessons learned” from misconduct, and on incorporating those lessons into the compliance program using objective metrics collected from…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

New Scrutiny for NDAs in Sexual Harassment Matters

By Jennifer Kennedy Park & Georgia V. Kostopoulos on April 29, 2019

Legal and regulatory scrutiny regarding the use of non-disclosure agreements by companies to resolve allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct continues to increase in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Such scrutiny featured prominently this month in two high-profile sexual harassment matters: the Wynn Resorts investigation and the various legal proceedings following the allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Both in-house and outside counsel for companies with senior executives facing such allegations should take note of these…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

Senator Warren Proposes Bill to Hold Corporate Executives Criminally Accountable for Negligent Conduct

By Lev L. Dassin, Jennifer Kennedy Park & David E. Wagner on April 10, 2019

On April 3, 2019, Senator (and Democratic Presidential contender) Elizabeth Warren announced proposed legislation—dubbed the “Corporate Executive Accountability Act”—that would effect a dramatic change in white collar criminal law by permitting prosecution of corporate executives for negligent conduct. Under traditional criminal law principles, defendants must typically have at least knowledge with respect to the conduct that constitutes the crime. However, under Senator Warren’s proposed law, executives of large companies could be criminally prosecuted (and fined…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

CFTC Issues First Whistleblower Award Originating From Both a Related Action and a Company Outsider

By Jennifer Kennedy Park, Nowell D. Bamberger, Alex Janghorbani & Jim Wintering on March 11, 2019

On March 4, 2019, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced a whistleblower award of over $2 million to an individual—unaffiliated with the company the CFTC charged—for providing expert analysis in conjunction with a related action instituted by another federal regulator. While the Securities and Exchange Commission, which possesses a similar whistleblower award regime,[1] has previously issued awards to multiple claimants for both related actions[2] and to company outsiders,[3] this is the…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

DOJ Issues Twelfth Declination Letter Under FCPA Cooperation Policy

By Jennifer Kennedy Park, Alex Janghorbani & Thomas Galvão Graham on February 19, 2019

On February 15, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced that it had settled—on a no-admit, no-deny basis—with Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (“Cognizant”) for alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”) involving Cognizant’s former president and chief legal officer.[1] The same day, the Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) indicted the two former executives and the SEC filed a civil complaint seeking permanent injunctions, monetary penalties, and officer-and-director bars against…

Cleary Enforcement Watch

New DOJ Guidance on the Imposition and Selection of Corporate Monitors

By Jennifer Kennedy Park, Jonathan S. Kolodner & Lisa Vicens on October 16, 2018

On Friday, October 12, 2018, during remarks at the NYU School of Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement Conference on Achieving Effective Compliance, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Department of Justice announced new guidance, issued on October 11, relating to the imposition and selection of corporate compliance monitors in Criminal Division matters. Acknowledging the significant burden that monitors place on corporations, Benczkowski announced that the new guidance is intended to ensure…

Jennifer Kennedy Park

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Longer Time Limits for Non-intervened FCA Actions

DOJ Issues Guidance on Cooperation In False Claims Act Investigations

SDNY Judge Finds Government “Outsourcing” of Investigation to External Counsel Runs Afoul of Fifth Amendment

DOJ Guidance on Corporate Compliance Programs: A Checklist for Directors

DOJ Updates Guidance for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs

New Scrutiny for NDAs in Sexual Harassment Matters

Senator Warren Proposes Bill to Hold Corporate Executives Criminally Accountable for Negligent Conduct

CFTC Issues First Whistleblower Award Originating From Both a Related Action and a Company Outsider

DOJ Issues Twelfth Declination Letter Under FCPA Cooperation Policy

New DOJ Guidance on the Imposition and Selection of Corporate Monitors

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