This “new era” of FCPA enforcement has resulted in many things.  From my perspective, one of the best things it has resulted in is increased attention of the FCPA and FCPA compliance among academics and students.

The ABA Criminal Justice Section’s Global Anti-Corruption Task Force (here) recently published “Complying With the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act:  A Practical Primer” (here).  The report is authored by University of Chicago Law Students Salen Churi, David Finkelstein, Joe Mueller; University of Chicago Law School faculty Dean David Zarfes, Michael Bloom, and Sean Kramer;  and Corporate Lab participants John Frank and Michel Gahard (both of Microsoft).  The University of Chicago Corporate Lab (see here) objective is “to provide students with ‘real-world’ experience and context, to prepare them to become well-rounded legal practitioners with sound legal and business judgment, and to provide them with opportunities to work on cutting-edge projects with multinational companies.”

Among other things, the purpose of ”Complying With the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act:  A Practical Primer” is to provide “a framework for developing effective [FCPA] compliance programs.”  As the report notes, “[t]he available guidance from the government on how to comply with the FCPA’s requirements and prohibitions is extremely limited” and “the guidance that the government has made available is vague, disjointed, and sparse.”

The report contains a comprehensive overview of the “purposes of a compliance program,” the “facets of a compliance program,” “sources of guidance in crafting a compliance program” and various “metrics for an effective compliance program.”  However, contrary to the apparent suggestion in the report, the comprehensive FCPA best practices policies and procedures identified do not “protect companies from exposure to [FCPA] liability.”

Read more at FCPA Professor