Haima Marlier spoke to the National Law Journal about a nearly $280 million award issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), more than double any single previous whistleblower award from the SEC.

"There are a lot of important conversations that need to continue to happen with clients," Haima said. "These awards are now so large the whistleblower program has to be part of the conversation."

According to Haima, to stay ahead of such actions, companies must start paying more attention to their compliance culture and rethink their internal whistleblowing reporting systems, which includes making sure employees feel comfortable submitting complaints to the company in the first place.

"That gives the company an opportunity to do an internal investigation and address it before the SEC hears about it," Haima added.

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