Ethics Resource Center

Published: December 30, 2008

ERC�s Government Roundtable Takes the Long View

View photos from the roundtable at ERC's Flickr photo gallery

What better place to think lofty thoughts and take the long view, literally, than the top-floor conference room of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in downtown Washington, D.C.?

Thanks to ERC Fellows member Bill Lenox, the SEC´s ethics counsel, ERC’s latest in a series of roundtable discussions took place Nov. 20 in the "Chairman´s Ceremonial Room" on the building´s 10th floor. The priceless view of the Capitol on a brilliantly sunny day made some wonder how the commissioners can stay focused on all that fine print.

The topic of the day was what ethics officers can do to capture the boss´s attention, especially during a transition period or, in the worst case, an abrupt, unexpected upheaval at the top. For government ethics officers, of course, transition is epitomized by a change of administration and switch in political partisan control of the Executive Branch – now coming to the nation's capital in only four weeks.

The discussion ranged for three hours over the views of government ethics professionals and the corporate ethics officers for whose companies the federal government is a huge and complex client.

Leading the conversation were Stephen Potts, associate White House counsel, and Charles Bowsher, former Comptroller of the United States. Other attendees were:

• Leigh Bradley, head of the Defense Department's Standards of Conduct Office
• Michael Brainard, head of the Brainard Group, LLC
• Joe Gangloff, U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE)
• Marilyn Glynn, formerly of OGE
• Larry Goldberg, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general’s office
• Barbara Hannigan, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)
• Ed McDonnell, U.S. Department of the Interior
• Kim Rader-Purnell, the Boeing Company
• Cary Williams, the Federal Reserve
• Carol Yanofsky, PCAOB

This roundtable grew out of conversations at the ERC Fellows' meeting in July, where several attendees expressed interest in increasing ERC´s focus on federal government ethics issues. A similar roundtable, on the revolving door between industry and federal government service, was held earlier this year.

In This Issue

• The Policy Report By Paula J. Desio, ERC Chair on Ethics Policy:
  Ethics and Compliance Programs May Get Their Day in Court. Will they soon provide a legal defense to criminal liability?
• ERC Vice-Chair Scott Harshbarger: Working to Change the Rules of the Game
• Tough Times. Tough Actions.
  Column By Patricia J. Harned, Ph.D. President, ERC.
• ERC's Government Roundtable Takes the Long View