Podcast: William McGovern on the Recent Rise and Future of Whistleblowing Programs


July 10, 2020

Publication: Corporate Counsel Business Journal

Kobre and Kim’s William McGovern was featured on Corporate Counsel Business Journal’s “In House Warrior” Podcast to discuss the recent rise in whistleblowing, particularly in the United States and Asia.

During the interview, McGovern spoke on what he describes as a “culture of whistleblowing”, and the rise of whistleblower cases in the U.S. over the past twenty years. In terms of people’s motivations to become whistleblowers, McGovern noted that while there are programs that provide monetary rewards to whistleblowers, he sees them as the least common driver for whistleblowing. Most often, whistleblowers are people who “feel compelled to act”, because they’ve found something at a company or in government that they feel needs to be reported.

McGovern also shared his predictions for what’s to come in the world of whistleblowing: Specifically, he believes that we will see other programs modeling themselves after the SEC’s whistleblowing program. McGovern mentioned the IRS, for example, whose current model is more adversarial towards whistleblowers (compared to the SEC, who tends to embrace whistleblowers) which he feels more agencies will be doing in the future.

Click here to listen to the podcast in full.