International Corporate Codes of Conduct: U.S. Whistleblowing and E.U. Data Privacy Laws

Tanya Axenson, In-house Counsel, Constellation Energy Group, USA

Companies operating internationally may face laws and regulations that, at times, appear to conflict with one another. Those companies must diligently review those laws and work to ensure compliance with all applicable legislation. One critical area where this is particularly true for U.S.-based companies operating abroad is the intersection between the United States’ Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower law – which mandates, among a host of other things, anonymous reporting lines for employees to “blow the whistle” on inappropriate financial conduct – and other countries’ privacy and data protection laws. Those laws, and some notable judicial decisions, particularly in the European Union (“E.U.”), discourage employers from investigating employees based on anonymous complaints.

Tanya Axenson Macallair has been in-house counsel at Constellation Energy Group in Baltimore, Maryland since the Fall of 2007. Ms. Macallair serves as Senior Counsel for Human Resources and is a member of the Company’s Corporate Compliance team. She provides advice and counsel on the full spectrum of labor and employment laws and regulations for Constellation’s domestic and international operations. Ms. Macallair also assists in Constellation’s Corporate Compliance initiatives, including maintaining its Principles of Business Integrity code and overseeing its employee complaint mechanisms. Prior to joining Constellation, Ms. Macallair was an associate in the Washington, DC office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Ms. Macallair was a member of the firm’s Labor & Employment Law and Litigation Groups. Ms. Macallair received her law degree from the Harvard Law School and her undergraduate degree from the School of Industrial & Labor Relations at Cornell University.

Constellation Energy Group is... • A leading supplier of energy products and services to wholesale and retail electric and natural gas customers. • A major generator of electricity with a diversified fleet of generating units strategically located throughout the United States and Canada, totaling approximately 7,100 megawatts of generating capacity. • Among the leaders pursuing the development of new nuclear plants in the United States. • A regulated distributor of electricity and natural gas in Central Maryland through our utility, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company. • A FORTUNE 500 energy company, headquartered in Baltimore, Md., with revenues of $19.8 billion in 2008.