UPDATED IN MARCH 2013 to include the historic $104-million Bradley Birkenfeld whistleblower case and more! From the nation’s leading whistleblower attorney, comes the third edition of the first-ever consumer guide to whistleblowing. In The Whistleblower’s Handbook, Stephen Martin Kohn explains nearly all federal and state laws regarding whistleblowing. In the step-by-step bulk of the book, he also presents twenty-one rules for whistleblowers.
The unbelievable true story of the young woman who faced down one of the most valuable startups in Silicon Valley history--and what came after In 2017, twenty-five-year-old Susan Fowler published a blog post detailing the sexual harassment and retaliation she'd experienced as an entry-level engineer at Uber. The post went viral, leading not only to the ouster of Uber's CEO and twenty other employees, but "starting a bonfire on creepy sexual behavior in Silicon Valley that . . . spread to Hollywood and engulfed Harvey Weinstein" (Maureen Dowd, The New York Times). When Susan decided to share her story, she was fully aware of the consequences most women faced for speaking out about harassment prior to the #MeToo era. But, as her inspiring memoir, Whistleblower, reveals, this courageous act was entirely consistent with Susan's young life so far: a life characterized by extraordinary determination, a refusal to accept things as they are, and the desire to do what is good and right. Growing up in poverty in rural Arizona, she was denied a formal education--yet went on to obtain an Ivy League degree. When she was told, after discovering the pervasive culture of sexism, harassment, racism, and abuse at Uber, that she was the problem, she banded together with other women to try to make change. When that didn't work, she went public. She could never have anticipated what would follow: that she would be investigated, followed, and harrassed; that her words would change much more than Uber; or that they would set her on a course toward finally achieving her dreams. The moving story of a woman's lifelong fight to do what she loves--despite repeatedly being told no or treated as less-than--Whistleblower is both a riveting read and a source of inspiration for anyone seeking to stand up against inequality in their own workplace.
Society needs whistleblowers, yet to speak up and expose wrongdoing often results in professional and personal ruin. Kate Kenny draws on the stories of whistleblowers to explain why this is, and what must be done to protect those who have the courage to expose the truth. Despite their substantial contribution to society, whistleblowers are considered martyrs more than heroes. When people expose serious wrongdoing in their organizations, they are often punished or ignored. Many end up isolated by colleagues, their professional careers destroyed. The financial industry, rife with scandals, is the focus of Kate Kenny’s penetrating global study. Introducing whistleblowers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Ireland working at companies like Wachovia, Halifax Bank of Scotland, and Countrywide–Bank of America, Whistleblowing suggests practices that would make it less perilous to hold the powerful to account and would leave us all better off. Kenny interviewed the men and women who reported unethical and illegal conduct at major corporations in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis. Many were compliance officers working in influential organizations that claimed to follow the rules. Using the concept of affective recognition to explain how the norms at work powerfully influence our understandings of right and wrong, she reframes whistleblowing as a collective phenomenon, not just a personal choice but a vital public service.
The Whistleblower presents the shocking story of the human rights abuses perpetrated by American mercenary soldiers abroad, as told by the woman who brought them down--now a major motion picture. When Nebraska police officer and divorced mother of three Kathryn Bolkovac saw a recruiting announcement for private military contractor DynCorp International, she applied and was hired. Good money, world travel, and the chance to help rebuild a war-torn country sounded like the perfect job. Bolkovac was shipped out to Bosnia, where DynCorp had been contracted to support the UN peacekeeping mission. She was assigned as a human rights investigator, heading the gender affairs unit. The lack of proper training provided sounded the first alarm bell, but once she arrived in Sarajevo, she found out that things were a lot worse. At great risk to her personal safety, she began to unravel the ugly truth about officers involved in human trafficking and forced prostitution and their connections to private mercenary contractors, the UN, and the U.S. State Department. After bringing this evidence to light, Bolkovac was demoted, felt threatened with bodily harm, was fired, and ultimately forced to flee the country under cover of darkness—bringing the incriminating documents with her. Thanks to the evidence she collected, she won a lawsuit against DynCorp, finally exposing them for what they had done. This is her story and the story of the women she helped achieve justice for.
A “brisk and interesting” exploration of exposing misconduct in America—from the Revolutionary War era to the Trump years (Jill Lepore, The New Yorker). PROSE Award winner in the Government, Policy and Politics category Misconduct by those in high places is always dangerous to reveal. Whistleblowers thus face conflicting impulses: by challenging and exposing transgressions by the powerful, they perform a vital public service—yet they always suffer for it. This episodic history brings to light how whistleblowing, an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience, has held powerful elites accountable in America. Analyzing a range of whistleblowing episodes, from the corrupt Revolutionary War commodore Esek Hopkins (whose dismissal led in 1778 to the first whistleblower protection law) to Edward Snowden, to the dishonesty of Donald Trump, Allison Stanger reveals the centrality of whistleblowing to the health of American democracy. She also shows that with changing technology and increasing militarization, the exposure of misconduct has grown more difficult to do and more personally costly for those who do it—yet American freedom, especially today, depends on it. “A stunningly original, deeply insightful, and compelling analysis of the profound conflicts we have faced over whistleblowing, national security, and democracy from our nation's founding to the Age of Trump.” —Geoffrey R. Stone, award–awinning author of Perilous Times “This clear-eyed, sobering book narrates a history of whistle-blowing, from the American Revolution to Snowden to Comey, and delivers the verdict that the republic is at risk—a must read.” —Danielle Allen, award-winning author of Our Declaration
First introduced in the United States, whistleblower laws have become increasingly popular around the world. This book illustrates the regional efforts undertaken by European organizations to promote whistleblower protection in Europe. To provide context, the first part of the book presents an overview of the international best practices for whistleblowing legislation and explores the status of whistleblower under international law. It also assesses the global hot topics regarding whistleblowing, from the cases of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange to the silencing of whistleblowers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following parts focus on the European approach to whistleblower laws. It illustrates the influence of the Council of Europe in putting whistleblower protection on the European agenda and discusses the European Court of Human Rights’ case law on whistleblowing under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the final part, the author analyzes the evolution of the European Union’s approach to whistleblowing and the legal significance of the EU Whistleblower Directive adopted in 2019. In the respective parts, the author also examines the effectiveness of the international organizations’ own internal rules on whistleblowing, from the United Nations and the World Bank Group to the Council of Europe and the European Union.
In this vivid portrait of one consummate professional at the top of his game, Katz pulls off an unbelievable feat in The Whistleblower--readers actually come to root for the ref.
Whistleblower is the nail-biting true story of what happens when someone with a lifelong habit of going along to get along is confronted with criminal activity she can't ignore. What seems a simple path to justice turns into a nightmare that leaves her without friends or allies and threatens to end an accomplished career. This is the stunning true account of one woman's resolve to tell the truth at any cost.
"A call to arms and to action, for anyone with a conscience, anyone alarmed about the decline of our democracy." — New York Times-bestselling author Wendell Potter "Powerful...His extensively reported tales of individual whistleblowers and their often cruel fates are compelling...They reveal what it can mean to live in an age of fraud." — The Washington Post "Tom Mueller's authoritative and timely book reveals what drives a few brave souls to expose and denounce specific cases of corruption. He describes the structural decay that plagues many of our most powerful institutions, putting democracy itself in danger." —George Soros A David-and-Goliath story for our times: the riveting account of the heroes who are fighting a rising tide of wrongdoing by the powerful, and showing us the path forward. We live in a period of sweeping corruption -- and a golden age of whistleblowing. Over the past few decades, principled insiders who expose wrongdoing have gained unprecedented legal and social stature, emerging as the government's best weapon against corporate misconduct--and the citizenry's best defense against government gone bad. Whistleblowers force us to confront fundamental questions about the balance between free speech and state secrecy, and between individual morality and corporate power. In Crisis of Conscience, Tom Mueller traces the rise of whistleblowing through a series of riveting cases drawn from the worlds of healthcare and other businesses, Wall Street, and Washington. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than two hundred whistleblowers and the trailblazing lawyers who arm them for battle--plus politicians, intelligence analysts, government watchdogs, cognitive scientists, and other experts--Mueller anatomizes what inspires some to speak out while the rest of us become complicit in our silence. Whistleblowers, we come to see, are the freethinking, outspoken citizens for whom our republic was conceived. And they are the models we must emulate if our democracy is to survive.
"A new roadmap for understanding the diverse perspectives and disparate bodies of law involved in any legal regime aimed at encouraging people in organisations to speak up about wrongdoing, making it possible for them to do so, and supporting and protecting them when they do. More than just a rich and readable history of whistleblowing laws, in the USA and around the world. Steeped in Robert Vaughn's personal experience as a lawyer and researcher over a 40 year period, this book stands to help solve some of the greatest conundrums in this vital area of legal regulation - one of the most complex in modern society, but one of the most crucial to integrity, accountability and organisational justice in all institutions. Compulsory reading for all policymakers, regulators, corporate leaders, researchers and activists engaged in improvement and implementation of public interest whistleblowing laws." - A.J. Brown, Griffith University and Transparency International Australia "Unlike other books on whistleblowing that simply describe and analyze whistleblowing laws, Robert Vaughn's new book provides an in-depth and unique historical account of the roots of the whistleblowing movement in such disparate events as the Mai Lai massacre, the civil rights movement, and the experiments of Stanley Milgrim. As important, he then uses that history to illuminate the competing perspectives and pressures that influenced the passage and interpretation of modern whistleblower laws. Vaughn provides a first-rate account of the varied and complex reasons for the successes and failures of these laws during the last forty years." - Richard Moberly, University of Nebraska College of Law, US Drawing on literature from several disciplines, this enlightening book examines the history of whistleblower laws throughout the world and provides an analytical structure for the most common debates about the nature of such laws and their potential successes and failures. The author explores the relationship between the actions of whistleblowers and the character of laws protecting them, as well as their administration and enforcement. The book considers the role of civil society groups in the successes of whistleblower laws and how current controversies reflect issues attached to these laws over half a century. This study contains perspectives from which successes and failures can be evaluated and will appeal to policy makers, scholars, whistleblower advocacy and other civil society groups, as well as anyone with a general interest in the subject.
