WINTER 2019 TODAY’S GENER AL COUNSEL
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New Congress Sure to Launch Probes Preparing for Congressional Investigations By Aaron S. Cutler, Elizabeth A. Jose and William M. Burgess
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idterm victories put the Democratic Party in control of the House of Representatives. With that control comes investigative and subpoena power, including the power to call company executives to testify before Congress. As the chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) is expected to launch a broad range of investigations aimed at financial services companies, particularly relating to consumer-facing issues. Waters has introduced a bill titled The Megabank Accountability and Consequences Act, which as written would require regulators to break up any big firm found to have repeatedly harmed consumers. Equifax and Marriot Corp. are likely to find themselves under scrutiny by the Financial Services Committee because of Aaron Cutler is data breaches; Deutsche a partner in the Government RelaBank, with its private tions and Public wealth management Affairs practice at office’s reputed ties to Hogan Lovells. He the Trump organization, lobbies Congress in will likely be called as energy and natural resources; banking well. Representative Eliand financial services; jah Cummings (D-MD) and technology, has stated publicly that media and telecom he is considering issuing sectors. Previously, subpoenas to pharmahe served as senior advisor for Policy ceutical companies over and Outreach to rising drug prices when former House he becomes chair of the Majority Leader House Oversight and Eric Cantor (R-VA). Government Reform aaron.cutler@ hoganlovells.com Committee. Other
committees are expected to launch a number of investigations. Companies that are likely to be called before these committees should start preparing now. Here are what those preparations should include:
Elizabeth Jose is a litigation counsel at Hogan Lovells who represents clients facing highprofile congressional • Prepare key response inquiries by various points for expected House and Senate areas of inquiry. Com- committees. She mittee staff largely has experience in base the topics of their responding to docuinvestigations on public ment requests, preparing witnesses for sources. Research the congressional hearpublic record with an ings and interviews, eye towards the issues and negotiating the scope of requests most likely to attract with committee staff. committee attention. elizabeth.jose@ The company should hoganlovells.com
then work with stakeholders to prepare factual response points and key messages for each expected area of inquiry. • Prepare executives to testify before Congress with a mock hearing. A “murder board” or mock congressional hearing is a valuable exercise for any executive likely to be called to testify before Congress so that he or she can refine this unique skill set not found in typical executive-level situations. • Execute a smart records retention and email policy. On hot-button issues, Congress will request a wide range of business documents and communications. Implement a records retention policy that complies with business continued on page 63
