Attorney Who Tipped SEC About Client Loses Appeal Over Award (1)

An attorney who blew the whistle on his client can’t collect an award from the Securities and Exchange Commission because the disclosure wasn’t permitted by state bar rules, a federal appeals court decided.

Under rules for the SEC’s whistleblower program, an attorney can’t recover an award for disclosing information learned during the representation of a client unless the disclosure was allowed by state bar rules or SEC attorney conduct regulations.

While Florida bar rules permit an attorney to disclose confidential information if they reasonably believe it’s necessary to “serve the client’s interest,” the attorney in the case at hand blew ...