Take it from me, if I recommend a stock pick to buy or sell – do the opposite. In a great episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza adopted a new-life approach by doing the exact opposite of what he normally would do in a situation. Here is the classic clip.
In a podcast episode I recorded with Tom Fox, I made the “brilliant” point that DOJ had not issued an Opinion Release in years because of the extensive guidance it had provided on compliance issues. After making that bold statement, DOJ turned around and issued a new Opinion Release. So I humbly have swallowed my own words.
While the issuance of an Opinion Release after six years is a significant development in the FCPA arena, I am puzzled why the requestor even submitted the request. In reviewing the facts, the requestor’s inquiry does not appear to raise significant legal questions under the FCPA.
Notwithstanding my view, I am sure we will see a plethora of client alerts, reviews and articles issued by the FCPA Paparazzi citing this release as some important and new guidance. Please save the paper and electronic transmissions – we are witnessing yet another profound grasp of the obvious.
Maybe I am getting cynical in my old age, but this appears to be an issue that FCPA practitioners could have analyzed and provided a legal analysis to the client without invoking DOJ’s Opinion Release procedure. To be fair, I am not privy to all the facts but on its face, the issue and analysis does not present a close legal question or clarification. In fact, as I note below, the requestor failed to take a basic step by executing a written contract with the...
