Today, the Second Circuit issued its highly anticipated decision in Berman v. Neo@Ogilvy, ruling (in a 2-1 decision) that Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower protection provision applies to internal complaints (i.e., complaints that are made by employees within the company and not to the SEC). This creates a circuit split; it is directly at odds with the Fifth Circuit’s 2013 decision in Asadi v. G.E. Energy (USA), L.L.C. As a result of the clear split, the question of whether purely internal complaints are protected by Dodd-Frank could ascend to the U.S. Supreme Court for resolution.
Please see Proskauer’s Whistleblower Defense Blog for more details.
