Professor Ventry Cited in Philadelphia Inquirer

An article by Professor Dennis J. Ventry, to be published in the UC Davis Law Review, is cited in a blog by Philadelphia Inquirer financial reporter Joseph N. DiStefano.  The article concerns a high profile case in New York that ruled a lawyer whistleblower violated state ethics rules by revealing confidential information to stop his employer-client (mutual fund giant, Vanguard Group) from engaging in a tax fraud of epic proportions. In the article, "Stitches for Snitches: Lawyers as Whistleblowers," Ventry argues that the court undertook a deficient analysis of New York's ethics rules pertaining to permissive disclosure of confidential information, it further ignored provisions in New York's False Claims Act (the statute under which the whistleblower brought his action) that expressly protects disclosure of confidential employer information made in furtherance of the statute, and it neglected a longstanding and robust judicial public policy exception that safeguards whistleblowers for disclosing confidential information that detects and exposes an employer's illegal conduct.

Professor Ventry is an expert in tax policy and legal ethics. His research interests include tax expenditure analysis, family taxation, professional responsibility and standards of care, tax filing and administration, tax compliance, public finance, and tax and legal history. In addition, he was recently added as a co-author on the casebook, Federal Income Taxation with Paul McDaniel, Martin McMahon, Jr., and Daniel L. Simmons.

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