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Goldberg Kohn Litigation Principal Chip Mulaney is quoted in “DOJ's New Corporate Enforcement Policy Offers Clearer Path for Self-Reporting Companies, Lawyers Say,” published in the March 17, 2026, edition of the National Law Journal. Chip, a former federal prosecutor and head of Goldberg Kohn’s white-collar defense and investigations practice, defends companies and individuals facing criminal exposure, civil litigation and parallel enforcement actions.
The article concerns the U.S. Department of Justice’s new corporate enforcement guidelines released last week, which give companies a clearer idea of how federal prosecutors will handle cases in which companies self-report misconduct.
In the article, Chip calls the DOJ’s guidance “a corporate-friendly policy” that signals the department wants companies to voluntarily self-disclose potential white collar misconduct. He also says that prior to the new guidelines, companies would be reluctant to self-disclose with the outcome being so uncertain. Though companies will still need to make the determination whether it is in their interest to disclose wrongdoing, the DOJ policy “incentivizes self-disclosure by making it more certain,” he added.
"The DOJ has lost a lot of their experienced attorneys, especially in complex white-collar enforcement," Chip is quoted as saying. "And this will, in some ways, solve that problem by getting people to come forward," saving the department time and resources.
The DOJ’s Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy establishes a three-tier framework for resolving cases based on a company’s level of self-disclosure and cooperation. The policy governs enforcement decisions across all DOJ offices except for the antitrust division — the first time the department has established such a broad corporate enforcement policy for criminal matters, the DOJ said.
Corporations can avoid prosecution entirely and be granted a declination if they voluntarily self-disclose misconduct and fully cooperate in a timely manner, the department said. In “near miss” cases where companies tried to self-report but did not fully qualify for a full self-disclosure, companies can still be eligible for non-prosecution agreements and significant fine reductions, the DOJ added.
The third tier covers cases that don’t qualify for leniency, leaving prosecutors with broad discretion over charges and penalties, with limited fine reductions, the department said.
“It’s a much more concrete policy than I've ever seen,” says Chip.
When deciding whether to disclose misconduct to the DOJ, there could still be conflict surrounding the best interest of the corporation versus the best interests of individuals or corporate leaders, Chip says. Declinations granted to companies may not necessarily extend to individual employees, he added. “There's always going to be that tension about self-disclosing,” says Chip.
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