Advancing the Public Interest: Why the Model Rules Should Be Amended to Facilitate Federal Government Attorney Whistleblowing
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Advancing the Public Interest: Why the Model
Rules Should be Amended to Facilitate Federal
Government Attorney Whistleblowing
KATHRYN MARSHALL*
INTRODUCTION
Whistleblowers (i.e., those who reveal mismanagement, corruption, ille-
gality, or other wrongdoings to the public or authorities1) have alerted the
American public to concerns related to the government and private enterprises
since the inception of the United States2 and have intermittently received fed-
eral protection for their actions since 1778.3 In the context of the Federal
Government, Congress has more recently noted that federal employees who
whistle-blow serve the public interest by assisting in the elimination of
fraud, waste, abuse, and unnecessary Government expenditures. The noted
public service whistleblowers provide has led to the enactment of over twenty
federal laws protecting whistleblowers in the federal government and other
various fields from retaliatory acts resulting from their disclosures.5 Notably,
the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 established the Office of Special Counsel
to protect whistleblowers,6 and this protection was reaffirmed both by the
Whistleblower Protection Act of 19897 and the Whistleblower Protection
* J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (expected May 2019); University of Notre Dame (2014).
c 2018, Kathryn Marshall.
1. Whistleblower, DICTIONARY.COM, https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Whistleblowing [https://
perma.cc/8AVA-HCHG] (last visited Jan. 4, 2018).
2. Gov'T ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT, A Timeline of US Whistleblowers, https://www.whistleblower.org/
timeline-us-whistleblowers [https://perma.cc/A3HS-EDS5] (last visited Jan. 4, 2018).
3. S. Res. 522, 114th Cong. (2016) (Whereas, on July 30, 1778, in demonstration of their full support for
whistleblowers, the members of the Continental Congress unanimously enacted the first whistleblower legisla-
tion in the United States that read: 'Resolved, That it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United
States, as well as all other the inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or other proper
authority of any misconduct, frauds or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of
these states, which may come to their knowledge.').
4. Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, Pub. L. No. 101-12, 103 Stat. 16 §2(a)(1) (1989) (codified as
amended in scattered sections of 5 U.S.C.) [hereinafter WPA 1989].
5. See U.S. DEP'T OF LABOR, OSHA Online Whistleblower Complaint Form, https://www.osha.gov/
whistleblower/WBComplaint.html [https://perma.cc/6QJV-7PF3] (last visited Jan. 4, 2008).
6. Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-454, 92 Stat. 1111 §§3(4), 1204 (1978) (codified as
amended in scattered sections of 5 U.S.C. ch. 11).
7. See generally WPA 1989, supra note 4.
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Advancing the Public Interest: Why the Model Rules Should Be Amended to Facilitate Federal Government Attorney Whistleblowing
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