In
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. v.
Somers (Feb. 21, 2018), the Supreme Court held that the Dodd-Frank Act’s anti-retaliation provision provides a private cause of action only for persons who report suspected wrongdoing directly to the SEC, and not for persons who report exclusively to their employers internally. As a result of this decision, individuals who do not report to the SEC may not bring claims under Dodd-Frank; however, they may well have claims under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which explicitly protects individuals who report concerns internally from retaliation for having done so.
Read
our client memo on the decision.