Gabe Scannapieco Quoted in Law.com Article on DOJ Restructuring’s Impact on Enforcement Priorities

AGG Litigation & Dispute Resolution and Healthcare partner Gabe Scannapieco, who also co-chairs the firm’s Life Sciences industry team, was quoted in Law.com on the U.S. Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) recent restructuring and its implications for corporate compliance.

A former assistant director in DOJ’s Consumer Protection Branch (“CPB”), Gabe explained that prior administrations had steadily moved toward greater centralization of investigations within CPB. “That provided uniform guidance both to companies and to U.S. attorneys pursuing their own investigations,” he said.

By eliminating CPB and distributing its functions across other DOJ sections, however, companies may face “less predictability” in enforcement. “That’s tough for compliance people, what to anticipate,” Gabe noted. Additionally, he stated that prosecutors could now pursue more types of cases outside CPB’s standardized practices. “You may get some theories that are not as well thought out or have not been pressure tested against our institutional knowledge,” he said.

Gabe also emphasized the need for proactive compliance. “The first thing you want to do is become completely, to the extent you aren’t already, knowledgeable about all of the ways that the criminal division is looking at compliance policies,” he advised.

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