The official whistleblowing channels are the first stop for most employees who speak out about wrongdoing. The channels often work. But sometimes, when a whistleblowing disclosure highlights serious and system-level wrongdoing, official channels can prove useless for preventing it. Worse, these channels can be actively used against a whistleblower who has been targeted for retaliation. The case of a whistleblower at a large electricity company shows how a manager speaking up on behalf of his staff can end up as a public whistleblower targeted for attack. Uniquely, this chapter also takes the perspective of the senior leaders in the organization who are doing the targeting. Large and complex organizations by their very nature give rise to anxiety, defensiveness and a need to scapegoat someone when things go wrong. When official channels fail, public whistleblowers need to look elsewhere to defend themselves and disclose wrongdoing.

Whistleblower protection laws are growing in strength and number across the globe. Whistleblowing workers enjoy stronger legal rights than ever before. But there are dangers. Laws can be undermined by powerful employers with deep pockets intent on exploiting loopholes to suppress public whistleblowing. Lawfare is one such tactic. Whistleblowers can find themselves exposed, and in extreme cases, prosecuted for speaking up. The high-profile story of Theranos’s Erika Cheung illustrates this chapter. As a twenty-three-year-old graduate, Erika blew the whistle on the most famous white-collar crime of recent years. After whistleblowing, she was aggressively pursued by her former employer’s legal counsel: a nationally renowned firm. Along with other whistleblowers, Erika’s testimony would prove pivotal in convicting senior executives. This chapter introduces the new world of whistleblower reprisal, including lawfare tactics ranging from NDAs to SLAPPs and over-reaching trade secrets laws. It points to the vulnerability faced by individual whistleblowers whose rights to protection ‘on paper’ offer scant help in practice. It shows how good lawyers are important, but in the end, they are often not enough.