Commonly, and frequently for some, companies find themselves facing the daunting proposition of reporting an actual or potential violation of law to a government authority. Few other such heart-dropping quandaries face senior in-house counsel. Risks abound that self-reporting may cascade into a government investigation and sanction, civil lawsuits, bad press, market cap loss, or worse. Yet, the adverse consequences can be dramatically magnified by: 

• Not reporting;
• Facing accusations of delay and coverup; and/or, more innocently but no less deleterious,
• Being asleep at the helm.

The road posts for effectively self-reporting to government agencies arise time and again across multiple clients, industries, and practice areas. Done correctly, self-reporting makes the best of a bad situation, and allows your company to benefit under the relevant legal framework, whether the SEC’s Seaboard factors, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, or otherwise. Based on our combined experience as government lawyers, law firm practitioners, and in-house counsel, we set out below considerations we recommend that every company evaluate before picking up the phone to self-report to a government official.

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