Lesley Ann Skillen Interviewed by The Street on Female Whistleblowers

All News October 4, 2014

Ms. Skillen told The Street, a financial news and services website headquartered in Wall Street, New York, that successful women in corporate America typically are highly competent and passionate about their work, and when they see something going wrong they become very focused on fixing it.

Discussing the GlaxoSmithKline Case

She said that is what motivated her client Cheryl Eckard, a former Quality Assurance Manager for GlaxoSmithKline, to expose the company for distributing adulterated drugs. She noted that women like Carmen Sagarra — who tape recorded her colleagues in the Federal Reserve and in Goldman Sachs — may take that step because they know that they need evidence that what they are saying is true. She agreed that men who are breadwinners may hesitate to blow the whistle, but pointed out that men and women can take advantage of incentivized integrity programs like the False Claims Act and SEC Whistleblower Program that provide for financial rewards and are designed to encourage people to come forward when otherwise they would have no option.