Corporate Compliance Advice and Counseling

Anderson PLC works with small, medium, and large companies to design, structure, implement, evaluate, and manage corporate compliance programs.  The firm also advises clients on the creation and implementation of individual governance and supervisory policies and processes, and on appropriate programs to test the effectiveness of those policies and processes.

Maintaining a robust internal compliance program is no longer simply “good business.”  Compliance programs now must be designed to withstand intense external scrutiny, particularly for businesses that are in regulated industries.  It is common knowledge that the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines require an effective compliance program.  But a large number of important new regulations have been enacted in the U.S. in the last several years.  Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice have demonstrated in numerous high-profile matters that they will deploy sophisticated and aggressive enforcement and prosecutorial tools and processes – including advanced data analytics -- to look through the pronouncements of firms which claim to spend significant sums on regulatory risk management, to expose what are often insubstantial, “check-the-box” compliance programs.  These agencies have also made clear through settled and announced enforcement actions that they will consider the design and effectiveness of a company’s compliance program in determining whether to bring civil or criminal actions against the company, as well as in determining the severity of the civil penalty or criminal sentence to be imposed on it.  And it is not just the U.S. government that has progressively tightened the scope and nature of its regulation: governments of other countries and multinational bodies have also enacted aggressive new regulations applicable to U.S. businesses operating within those jurisdictions.  In this environment, a business that does not take seriously its legal and regulatory risk management obligations risks severe financial and reputational consequences, in addition to the material personal financial liabilities that can be imposed on the company’s individual executives, managers, and employees.  Accordingly, businesses should incorporate legal and regulatory risk management requirements into how they structure, manage, operate, and expand their businesses.

Anderson PLC utilizes its substantial expertise in the law and experience in the markets to help its clients protect and enhance enterprise-value in the face of increasingly rigorous regulatory requirements.  The firm also works with its clients to stay ahead of regulatory developments that can create significant financial liabilities if not addressed appropriately and timely.  Anderson PLC provides these services at flexible and competitive rates.

Services

In the corporate compliance area, Anderson PLC:

  • Works with companies, partnerships, sole proprietorships, boards, committees, and regulated entities (investment advisers, private funds, registered funds, broker-dealers, commodity pool operators, commodity trading advisors) to design, develop, and implement regulatory risk management programs to prevent, detect, remediate, and mitigate violations of laws and regulations
  • Customizes its advice to the client’s unique structure, governance, operations, locations, and internal policy and legal and regulatory requirements, with recommendations regarding measurable standards, objectives, and staffing, and oversight, reporting, and periodic assessment and evaluation protocols
  • Designs and implements comprehensive and independent diagnostic regulatory risk management reviews and assessments to evaluate, monitor, and assess the client’s existing governance, regulatory risk-control, supervisory, and other compliance processes, and to identify gaps and weaknesses in those processes and to recommend enhancements to them
  • Advises boards and executive management regarding the importance of the client’s compliance program, establishing appropriate compliance governance policies and procedures, communicating that understanding to all employees, and establishing an appropriate “tone at the top”
  • Counsels on the design and implementation of governance, risk management, compliance, new product, and other board and management committees, and drafts committee charters, policies, and procedures
  • Advises on appropriate supervisory structures and reporting relationships intended to avoid fiduciary and “failure-to-supervise” liability, and drafts supervisory policies and procedures
  • Drafts and reviews customized, practical, and “plain English” firm-wide, divisional, departmental, and office-based compliance manuals, codes of ethics, codes of conduct, and specific policies and procedures, including communication strategies for escalating issues
  • Identifies and evaluates, and advises on how to mitigate, internal and external conflicts of interest, including those relating to personal relationships, gifts and entertainment, outside business activities, and other areas
  • Advises on the staffing of legal and compliance roles, including through the design of practical position descriptions based on the client’s governance structure, operations, and regulatory exposures
  • Counsels individuals (executives, corporate officers, and employees) regarding the application of a company’s corporate compliance program to them
  • Advises on the design, development, and implementation of proprietary and third-party risk-management data-gathering, analysis, and reporting tools and processes, and the evaluation and selection of comparable third-party products
  • Designs and documents practical, customized testing, surveillance, and assessment programs and processes
  • Advises on the assertion of attorney-client privilege in reference to internal and external communications and documents
  • Designs and develops, and provides training regarding, policies and procedures relating to compliance with requirements imposed under U.S. anti-money laundering regulations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the False Claims Act, privacy regulations, cybersecurity regulations, and record-retention and document management regulations
  • Interviews directors, executives, managers, employees, and contractors regarding the application and functioning of, and changes to, the client’s compliance program
  • Advises on questions regarding the internal interpretation and enforcement of the client’s policies and procedures
  • Advises on real-time compliance program issues and questions
  • Advises on implications to the corporate compliance program from the client’s expansion into new markets and regions, and the development and launch of new products
  • Trains board members, executives, officers, and other employee groups, including sales staff and staff who interact with state and federal government representatives, regarding compliance obligations and procedures, including those which create or could create ongoing and novel and unique regulatory exposures
  • Advises in-house lawyers and compliance personnel regarding risks and duties unique to their roles
  • Advises on compliance issues related to the client’s use of existing and emerging social media and electronic communications technologies
  • Counsels non-U.S.-based companies regarding corporate compliance obligations under U.S. laws and regulations
  • Coordinates the use of non-U.S. counsel relating to legal and regulatory risk management issues
  • Conducts internal investigations on behalf of boards, committees, and management, and documents outcomes and findings
  • Counsels on preparing for, responding to, and defending formal and informal regulatory inquiries, examinations, and investigations, including those initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and exchanges and other self-regulatory organizations, including through designing and conducting confidential mock examinations of the client’s compliance program, supervisory processes, and internal controls
  • Advises on and drafts responses to regulatory deficiency letters and findings
  • Advises on managing and responding to the client’s financial and / or reputational crisis
  • Designs and develops broad-based and targeted remediation and reporting programs in response to the proposed or completed settlement of investigations and enforcement matters
  • Advises on disclosure obligations that follow from, or that are part of resolving, regulatory investigations and enforcement actions, including where required to continue in business
  • Counsels regarding the timing and content of self-reporting rule violations to regulatory authorities
  • Provides real-time monitoring of regulatory and legal developments affecting the industry and the relevant markets, and advises on formulating and implementing a cost-effective and practical regulatory strategy in response to those developments