No. The NWLDEF’s role is to simply conduct an initial case review and make a referral. Your decision to hire an attorney is yours, and yours alone. The Fund does not participate in any discussions you may have with an attorney we refer you to. The Fund does not make any recommendations concerning what attorney you should hire. A referral to an attorney is not a recommendation that you should hire that attorney.

All agreements between you and any attorney referred to you under this program are strictly between you and the attorney. You are free to decline representation from any attorney we refer to you. Once NWLDEF makes a referral, our role is over.

* To ensure the independence of the ARP neither the Fund nor the Center self-refer intakes to attorneys who work for these organizations, or who are trustees, directors, or contractors for these two organizations. If you want to contact any of these persons please send an email to them directly.

Yes. The attorneys in our program do not take clients from our referral service on a pro bono basis and you will pay their usual billing or contingency fees. However, to ensure our program is accessible for users, no participating attorney shall ever bill a whistleblower contingency fee above 40%.

A contingency fee is where an attorney is paid a percentage of the settlement or monetary recovery in the case.

No. The Attorney Referral Program is offered as a free service. You will not be charged or be asked to pay any referral fees. An attorney we refer to you cannot charge you for the referral services. If you obtain an attorney through our program and are signed on as their client, they will charge you their usual billing fees.

To support the work of the National Whistleblower Center and to cover the costs of the referral program, some attorney will donate a small portion of fees the obtain to the National Whistleblower Center when your case is resolved or settled.

NWC encourages and appreciates voluntary donations to help us fund our referral program. Such donations are not required from whistleblowers.

Obtaining a declination letter is not based on the merits of your case. It simply means that we do not have an attorney in our network available to take your case. This could be due to geographic constraints on our attorney network, limited capacity, or various other reasons. We recommend that you continue to search independently for an attorney while you await a decision from our referral program.

If the Fund has an attorney who may be interested in your case, your intake will be forwarded to them and you will receive notice via the email you provide on your intake form. Attorneys are asked to contact you directly within 5 days and decide if they will take your case within 30 days. All these communications are covered under the attorney-client privilege.

If we do not have an attorney who may be interested in your case, we will send you a declination letter containing information about other programs that may have an attorney interested in your case.

Once the form is submitted, a whistleblower attorney licensed in D.C. will review the information provided. After review, an immediate decision is made as to whether we have an attorney on our referral list who may be interested in your case.

If we have an attorney who may be interested in your case, your intake will be forwarded to them. They are asked to contact you directly, and to decide if they will take your case within 30 days.

All these communications are covered under the attorney-client privilege.

An NDA does not necessarily prevent you from blowing the whistle, and restrictive agreements that claim to prevent you from reporting securities fraud to the SEC may be illegal.