Know Your Rights!

Read The New Whistleblower’s Handbook

It is absolutely essential for whistleblowers to know their rights. The New Whistleblower’s Handbook is the first-ever guide to whistleblowing, by the nation’s leading whistleblower attorney. The Handbook is an easy to read step-by-step guide to the essential tools for successfully blowing the whistle, qualifying for financial rewards, and protecting yourself.

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What's Inside?

The New Whistleblower’s Handbook is the most comprehensive and authoritative guide to exposing workplace wrongdoing, qualifying for financial rewards, and protecting yourself from retaliation. The Handbook explains how to use modern whistleblower laws to report fraud confidentially, effectively work with law enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable and obtain multi-million-dollar rewards. It has extensive information on fighting on-the-job discrimination, including a comprehensive listing of the evidence needed to prove retaliation.

The Handbook will permit you to navigate the maze of confusing laws, rules, and regulations that govern whistleblowing. Ignorance of the proper steps to expose wrongdoing too often leads to silence, lost court cases, public embarrassment, and a failure to effect real change. But when done right, whistleblowing has strengthened democracy, protected the environment, and saved taxpayers and investors billions of dollars. Current whistleblower laws have created a powerful tool for valuable grassroots participation.

The Rules

About the Rules

It includes a new “Toolkit” for international whistleblowers, with specific rules concerning reporting frauds outside the United States and award programs under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, among other transnational anti-corruption laws. This essential guide explains all major federal and state laws protecting or rewarding whistleblowers, and in the step-by-step bulk of the book, presents 31 must-follow rules for whistleblowers—from finding the best laws that will protect you, to the dangers of blindly trusting internal corporate “hotlines,” to obtaining the proof you need to win the case.

Rules 1-5 outline all of the essential federal and state whistleblower laws

They discuss the modern whistleblower laws that permit confidential filings, pay rewards and present an overview of federal and state anti-retaliation laws.

Rules 6-12 explain the whistleblower reward laws

Including the False Claims Act, tax and money laundering reward laws, the Dodd-Frank Act, the Securities Exchange Act, the Commodity Exchange Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and reward laws covering auto safety, ocean pollution and other areas.

Rules 13-14 concern the rights of government employees

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Rules 15-16 discuss the scope of protected activities related to anti-retaliation laws

The definition of protected disclosures is also addressed in Rules 2-5 or under the rules related to specific laws.

Rules 17-19 discuss whistleblower laws that impact internal compliance and audit

They cover issues such as how compliance officials can qualify for financial rewards, problems with corporate “hotlines” or compliance programs, and issues related to corporate attorney managed investigations. Rule 19 provides specific guidance to company directors, partners, auditors, compliance professionals, and attorneys and explains the steps they must take to qualify for rewards under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Rules 20-27 covers the law on retaliation

It explains the major pitfalls, such as ensuring that you meet the statute of limitations and provides details into the evidence you need to prove a case and ensure that your claim reaches a jury or judge. It explains the types of monetary or equitable compensation available in retaliation cases, and how to make a company pay your attorney fees and costs.

Rule 28 concerns the legality of nondisclosure agreements

The ones that are often used to silence whistleblowers, and tactics that can be used to have these agreements nullified.

Rules 29-31 cover matters of general interest not related to any specific whistleblower law

They identify particular procedures that are subject to political pressure, and thus may be problematic is used. They also explain how successful whistleblowing can be in holding wrongdoers accountable and why whistleblowing is the most effective means for identifying corporate wrongdoing. There is also an overview of international whistleblower programs.

The “Final Rule” concerns the history of whistleblowing in the United States

It is the first complete historical account of America’s first whistleblowers. Based on original archival research, Kohn was able to put together the story of the first whistleblowers who exposed misconduct by a high-ranking official of the American government during the height of the Revolution. The whistleblowers filed their allegations to the Continental Congress in 1777, and the case was resolved in 1778. Based on this history the United States Senate has unanimously enacted resolutions declaring July 30th as National Whistleblower Appreciation Day.

What the Whistleblowers are Saying

With the Holy Bible in one hand and Mr. Kohn’s Whistleblower Handbook in the other, my wife crushed a powerful corporation.

Jim Guntherpro se representative Gunther v. Deltek

The only lawyer still on my side was Stephen Kohn…he was as smart as they come and feisty as a pit bull. Steve was convinced the government owed me a fat reward, and he was going to get it or die trying.

Bradley Birkenfeld

Whistleblowers need this Handbook!

Dr. Frederic WhitehurstFBI Crime Lab Whistleblower

Steve has written a first-rate handbook for workers who have witnessed egregious examples of waste, fraud or abuse which they know should be reported to the authorities but who are afraid of losing their jobs if they do. The handbook tells them of the many laws and services available to them, which if understood and used intelligently, can not only protect a whistleblower from losing his job, but can even led to cash rewards under some circumstances.

William SanjourEPA Whistleblower

As a National Security whistleblower, I am very familiar with the plight of those who dare to expose corruption, fraud, waste and abuse…I am more than certain that “The Whistleblower’s Handbook” will help countless whistleblowers navigate the horrifying maze of the legal system…This is a must-read for every current or potential whistleblower.

Julia DavisDepartment of Homeland Security Whistleblower

I hope that employees of every defense contractor use the book to ensure that taxpayers are not robbed by unscrupulous corporations.

Bunnatine GreenhouseArmy Corps of Engineers Whistleblower

This book arms the whistleblower with the vital ammunition needed to effectively document corruption, while guiding them in how to protect their families, reputations and careers.

Linda TrippWhite House Whistleblower

As a whistleblower who has successfully won a case against the FBI, I can attest to the fact that this is the definitive Bible for whistleblowers. Written by the premier whistleblower attorney in the United States, this handbook contains everything you will need to know about blowing the whistle and surviving.

Jane TurnerFBI Whistleblower and 25 Year Veteran Agent

Steve Kohn’s book The Whistleblower’s Handbook provides a great service to current and would-be whistleblowers and to our citizenry by providing a comprehensive guide to exposing waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct in both the private and public sectors. It effectively acts as a compass and detailed avoidance map to help navigate whistleblowers through the retaliatory minefields they may already have entered, or will soon face.

Russ TiseFormer Intelligence Officer (NSA) National Security Agency

This is a great book… Read [The Handbook] to see how Stephen Kohn won a case using his powerful skills as a lawyer.

Dr. Donald R. SoekenFounder of No FEAR Coalition

What the Experts are Saying

The top ten books about whistleblowers.

PEN CenterUSA

Vastly shrewd and practical, but it also offers an astute long view of American whistle-blowing.

The Boston Globe

If you’re among the 34% of Americans who have seen wrongdoing at their job, you may want to add this book to your Christmas wish list. Just don’t let your boss catch you reading it.

The Wall Street JournalRead Writeup

[The Handbook] is the single best volume collection of all laws, rights, and obligations related to whistleblowing that I have come across.

Thomas R. FoxFCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog

The Whistleblower’s Handbook opens a window into the controversial but vital role of whistleblowers in America’s workplace dating from the days of the Civil War. With compelling insider details, practical “rules” and rare insights, Stephen Kohn, the country’s leading whistleblower expert, has created the essential overview for CEO’s, CFO’s, GC’s, chief compliance officers, HR and audit professionals, and others who should be knowledgeable about this fundamental aspect of corporate life.

Donna BoehmeFounder Compliance Strategists LLC

Whistleblowers should read The Whistleblower’s Handbook. Its twenty-one rules lay out the game plan for holding institutions accountable while protecting your job.

Michael RadutzkySenior Producer 60 Minutes

Meet the Author

For the past 25 years, Kohn’s been in the trenches fighting the whistleblower wars. The lessons learned from those wars have been distilled in this book.

Michael E. TigarProfessor of Law at American University

Kohn is a feared litigator in government and corporate circles.

John SolomonNews and Investigations Editor, Newsweek/The Daily Beast

Stephen Kohn’s new book on whistleblowing . . . is a masterpiece. The book is an invaluable resource.

Victoria ToensingFounding Partner of di Genova & Toensing

Stephen Kohn’s book gives workers, their unions, and their lawyers all the tools they need to make sure that when the whistle is blown, the wrongdoer and not the whistleblower gets punished.

John SweeneyFounding Partner of di Genova & Toensing

Stephen Kohn’s new treatise on Whistleblower Protection Law provides a critical resource in a vital area. Whistleblowers help protect us all in countless ways–they expose dangerous environmental conditions, unsafe work practices, consumer rip-offs and fraud on the government. Kohn’s scholarly, yet common-sense treatment of this subject pulls together the existing amalgam of scattered labor and employment laws that protect whistleblowers and give the practitioner a reliable and effective tool for navigating these waters.

Gerard M WaitesPartner at O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue

The ultimate legal guide to protecting yourself.

PEN Center, USASelected by the Pen Center as one of the “top ten books about whistleblowers."

Stephen Kohn has written an inspiring and optimistic report on the state of whistleblowing in the US and guides us through the complexities of risking our own comfort by blowing the whistle. . . The wise reader will pay heed to Kohn’s short list of rules when performing her moral duty.

Gina VegaProfessor of Management at the Bertolon School of Business and Author of Moral Courage