Protecting Your Practice: Building an Ethical Firm Culture, Preventing Internal Fraud, and Confronting Misconduct

Dr. Mary Gentile | Center for Higher Ambition Leadership

Mary C. Gentile, PhD, is Creator/Director of Giving Voice to Values; (formerly) the Richard M. Waitzer Bicentennial Professor of Ethics at University of Virginia Darden School of Business; Senior Advisor at Aspen Institute Business & Society Program; and consultant on management education and leadership development. Among numerous other awards, Gentile was named “2024-25 Practioner in Residence” at Notre Dame University Institute of Ethics and the Common Good; was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2021; was named as one of the “Top Minds 2017” by Compliance Week; one of the 2015 “100 Most Influential in Business Ethics” by Ethisphere; and one of the “Top Thought Leaders in Trust: 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners” by Trust Across America-Trust Around the World, January 2015. She was previously “short-listed” for the Thinkers50 2019 award for “Ideas Into Practice” (having also been short-listed in 2017). Giving Voice to Values also won the Bronze Medal in the 2017 Reimagine Education Ethical Leadership Awards.

Giving Voice to Values, a pioneering business curriculum for values-driven leadership, has been featured in Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, McKinsey Quarterly, etc. and presented and/or piloted in over 1,500 business schools and organizations globally. The award-winning book is Giving Voice to Values: How to Speak Your Mind When You Know What Right (www.MaryGentile.com), with translations in Chinese and Korean. Gentile has authored numerous books and articles and partnered with Nomadic.fm on online interactive social cohort-based modules (http://nomadic. fm/ProgDetailGivingVoiceToValues.html). There is a 4-week online course from Coursera/Darden: https://www.coursera.org/learn/uva-darden-giving-voice-to-values. Her latest edited collection with Jerry Goodstein is Giving Voice to Values: An Innovation and Impact Agenda [https://www.routledge.com/Giving-Voice-to-Values-An-Innovation-and-Impact-Agenda/Goodstein-Gentile/p/book/978036776836]

From 1985-95, Gentile was faculty member and manager of case research at Harvard Business School and one of the principal architects of HBS’s Leadership, Ethics and Corporate Responsibility curriculum. She co-authored Can Ethics Be Taught? Perspectives, Challenges, and Approaches at Harvard Business School and was Content Expert for the award-winning interactive CD-ROM, Managing Across Differences (HBS Publishing). Gentile’s publications include: Giving Voice to Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right; Can Ethics Be Taught? Perspectives, Challenges, and Approaches at Harvard Business School (with Thomas Piper & Sharon Parks); Differences That Work: Organizational Excellence through Diversity; Managerial Excellence Through Diversity: Text and Cases, as well as cases and articles in Harvard Business Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Risk Management, CFO, BizEd, Strategy+Business, etc. Gentile was Content Expert for the award- winning CD-ROM, Managing Across Differences (Harvard Business School Publishing). Gentile earned her bachelor’s degree from The College of William and Mary and her MA and PhD from State University of New York-Buffalo.

Doug Cash | Eide Bailly LLP

Doug is a retired law enforcement officer who specializes in dealing with white collar crime. He investigates fraud and helps clients prevent future problems while finding justice for past issues. When you work with Doug, you can expect a uniquely qualified partner who can help you crack down on white collar crime and find solutions to fraud while preventing more problems in the future. His professional experience and previous role as a law enforcement officer means he’s ready to work with you, whatever the issue. When he’s not helping clients, you’ll probably find Doug spending time with his family, traveling or trying to catch a fish as often as possible. Who can resist all the wonderful scenery and fishing opportunities in Colorado? Doug can’t! Doug provides forensic accounting services for clients and has specific knowledge of fraudulent and criminal activities. Served as lead investigator in various types of fraud-related investigations, including embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft, financial exploitation of vulnerable adults, Ponzi and Pyramid schemes as well as theft by misrepresentation. Documented and qualified fraud losses and assisted with civil and criminal proceedings for clients. Assisted clients with insurance claims involving fraud losses. Retired detective with decades of law enforcement experience and an emphasis in white collar crime. Former special agent with Arizona’s Department of Insurance Fraud Unit, as well as a financial investigator for JP Morgan Chase bank.

Reuben A. Guttman | Guttman Buschner LLP

Reuben Guttman is a founding member of Guttman, Buschner & Brooks, PLLC where his practice involves civil rights, whistleblowers, class actions and complex litigation.

The International Business Times has referred to him as “one of the world’s most prominent whistleblower attorneys.” Citing “wins recouping billions of dollars for the federal and state governments,” Boston Globe’s STAT News referred to him as the “The Lawyer Pharma Loves to Hate.”

Guttman has represented workers, unions, and pension funds in complex litigation. For over a decade, he has served as the chief outside counsel to the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union, AFL-CIO/CLC, in a series of labor and environmental cases that enhanced safety and environmental conditions at Manhattan Project nuclear weapons sites while driving dread disease compensation legislation for nuclear weapons workers across the nation.

In 2020, he served as lead counsel in a federal class action lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Corrections and secured a consent order mandating Hepatitis C testing and treatment for 17,000 inmates.

Guttman is currently a faculty member of the American University School of Public Affairs where he teaches Equal Protection/Civil Rights, and he has been an Adjunct Professor at Emory Law School and a Senior Fellow at Emory Law’s Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. He is a Founder and Senior Advisor to the Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review (ECGAR). He is the 2015 recipient of the Emory Law Alumni Service Award.

He has taught trial advocacy and complex case investigations in the United States, China, and Mexico, and he has co-authored three case files – two published by Emory Law and one published by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy where he is a faculty member.

He is co-author (with J.C. Lore III of Rutgers Law) of the textbook, Pretrial Advocacy (Wolters Kluwer Spring, 2021). He is a chapter co-author (with Traci Buschner) and wrote the introduction for Remote Advocacy: A Guide to Survive and Thrive (Wolters Kluwer and National Institute of Trial Advocacy, 2020).

Guttman has written or co-authored more than 100 articles or opinion pieces and multiple book chapters and law review pieces. He is a monthly columnist for Law360 where he writes on litigation and politics.

His article, Pharmaceutical Regulation in the United States; a Confluence of Influences, was translated and published in Mandarin in the Peking University Public Interest Law Journal, Vol 1, Page 187 (2010).

Guttman is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; he is past member of the Board of Directors of the American Constitution Society (ACS) where he is currently a member of the ACS Board of Advisors.

Guttman received his JD from Emory University and his BA in American History from the University of Rochester. He is the founder of www.whistleblowerlaws.com. He began his legal career as a Washington DC counsel for the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, where he served for five years. Guttman is licensed to practice in front of The United States Supreme Court and in the states of Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia.

Session I – Giving Voice to Values: The “HOW” of Values-Driven Leadership Development | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

• Why organizational ethics and compliance training has not worked — the missing link in ethics and compliance training and how to address it
• The seven pillars or principles of voicing and enacting values in the workplace
• The importance of understanding individual strengths and aligning them with personal and professional purpose in the pursuit of value-driven leadership
• The importance of “scripting” and practice: Building “Moral Muscle Memory”

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

Session II – Raising Awareness: Protecting Your Law Firm from Employee Fraud | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

• Identifying hidden risk areas within law firm operations
• Spotting early behavioral and financial indicators of fraud
• Understanding how awareness can prevent costly financial and reputational harm
• Steps to take immediately when fraud is suspected

Break | 3:10pm – 3:20pm

Session III – When Lawyers Look Away: Ethics, Accountability, and the Silence Around Internal Misconduct | 3:20pm – 4:20pm

• The legal profession’s culture of silence
  • Why attorneys hesitate to confront internal misconduct
  • How privilege, hierarchy, and firm politics shield wrongdoing
• Accountability without whistleblowers
  • Practical steps for cultivating internal accountability in law firms
  • What lawyers can learn from whistleblower cases outside the legal profession
• Ethical boundaries and real-world dilemmas
  • When to speak up, when to escalate, and how to protect your license and integrity