The next NYSSCPA Breakfast Briefing on Jan. 28 will cover whistleblowing under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and moderator and CPA Francine McKenna foresees a “lively debate.” The free event will be held from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Society headquarters in Manhattan.

“There will be a variety of perspectives on the panel and I’m looking forward because this is a very interesting, but also a somewhat contentious, topic,” said McKenna, who is managing editor of the re: The Auditors blog and a regular columnist for Forbes.com. “For example, there’s a camp that might think the law usurps a corporation’s right to investigate internally, but from the other side people would say the law helps the truth get out sooner and faster and could help prevent scandals.”

The panel of experts will feature Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins; Marion E. Koenigs, deputy director in the Public Company Accountability Oversight Board’s Division of Enforcement and Investigations; and former Securities and Exchange Commissioner (2002-2008) Paul S. Atkins, currently the managing director of Patomak Partners.

Dodd-Frank was enacted in July of last year in an effort to prevent another financial crisis from rocking the country. The full title says it all: “An act to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end ‘too big to fail,’ to protect the American taxpayers by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices and for other purposes.”

The panel will discuss the implications of Dodd-Frank’s whistleblower provisions, which were designed to provide greater safeguards and incentives to employees coming forward with information on securities law violations. Despite this, said McKenna, whistleblowers still must travel “a very tough road.”

“For people to risk their careers, their reputations -- even in some cases their lives -- well, we have to find a way to care for them,” said McKenna.

“This topic brings both very strong personal and professional issues to light because you have the issues of personal integrity, independence and objectivity that people in the licensed professions stand for,” she said. “But then they are also part of corporations or firms, as most of us are, and it’s a fine balance to have to strike between their loyalties and their sense of responsibility.”

Journalists from a wide range of publications have already signed up for the event, including press representatives from Dow Jones, CNN, Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Long Island Business News, and many others.

Please visit the Society’s website to register for the free live event or the free webcast. Please note that continuing professional education credit is not available.

Whistleblowing Under Dodd-Frank is the tenth in a series of NYSSCPA Breakfast Briefings. The other briefings have featured incisive discussions on the new financial reform law, hot tax issues in Washington, healthcare reform, the estate tax, retirement, the economy, Madoff and taxes and mark-to-market accounting, as well as a presidential tax forum.