Contact with Outside Lawyers May Support Whistleblower Claim

Patrick Egan, a former employee of TradingScreen Inc., filed a whistleblower suit against his former employer after being fired. Egan filed claims in federal district court pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Securities Exchange Act, and the Delaware Whistleblowers' Protection Act. The Defendants asked the court to dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint, but the federal judge decided to allow the Plaintiff to amend his complaint with respect to his Dodd-Frank and Securities Exchange Act Claims. The remainder of the Plaintiff's claims were dismissed.

Specifically, the Defendants claimed that the Plaintiff's claims under the Dodd-Frank Act should be dismissed because the Plaintiff did not report his complaints about TradingScreen directly to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) himself, as required by the Act. The Plaintiff had contacted outside lawyers hired by independent directors of TradingScreen to conduct an internal investigation into the activities of the chief executive officer. The judge determined that the Plaintiff made sufficient allegations in his complaint that could support his claim that he was working in conjunction with the outside lawyers in an effort to inform the SEC of the chief executive officer's conduct.

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