Legal Question in Business Law in California

Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower violation?

I was hired as a full-time consultant(full-time employee) for a computer software company. After 3 months of sitting around and reading various (wrong)books to learn the product I was sent out on an engagement. I still didn't know that much about the software and had no guidance from anyone but I BS'd my way through it. It wasn't until the third engagement that the client company found out I didn't know anything. What my manager did was hire people, send them out on engagements and we would call him to answer the clients questions when the client was

expecting a seasoned certified consultant. After the company found out about me, my company reimbursed the client.

After I told HR and my managers boss what is going on, I was fired. This is a big company and they are charging companies a lot of money for consultant that don't know anything. They are still doing it. I have detailed documentation(extensive notes and emails) of everything that transpired from the day I was hired to the day I was fired. Is this a Sarbanes-Oxley violation?


Asked on 7/01/06, 7:35 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower violation?

As I understand Sarbanes-Oxley, its focus is on accounting and auditing standards and financial reporting.

Neither running a shoddy customer service on-site engineering operation nor firing someone after an internal complaint is made seems to be mainstream Sarbanes-Oxley target material, although one might find a violation hidden in all this somewhere; neither is a retaliatory firing what I understand to be a Sarbanes-Oxley violation.

It doesn't even seem to violate the Labor Code, which does, indeed, outlaw retaliatory firings for whistleblowing to outside (government regulatory) agencies for rule-breaking conduct by an employer.

You might want to contact an employment law specialist to see whether this kind of firing is actionable under some law or regulation, or is something for which you might recover damages in a private suit. Employment torts and contract breaches are a specialty that most business lawyers (myself included) don't know that well.

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Answered on 7/02/06, 2:56 am


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