Case in Point

If you’ve been following DOJ speeches in the past year, you’d think corporate cooperation and voluntary disclosures of misconduct have been completely reinvented. A May 2025 DOJ memo emphasized the benefits available to companies that self-disclose and cooperate and touted new and improved disclosure policies that can result in non-prosecution agreements and reduced penalties.

In reality, the fundamentals haven’t changed nearly as much as the pressure has. Prosecutors still want timely disclosure, usable facts, and a credible effort to identify individuals. What’s different is the expectation that companies move faster—often before counsel has a full grasp of the facts or the exposure. The Justice Manual (formerly the US Attorneys’ Manual) makes clear that “the Department encourages timely voluntary self-disclosure of criminal wrongdoing, . . . even before all facts are known to the corporation[.]”

That creates a real tension between being “prompt” and being accurate, especially in complex investigations where early narratives rarely survive first contact with the documents.

The practical takeaway is that cooperation is no longer a yes-or-no decision—it’s a series of judgment calls that begin almost immediately. Early missteps can be hard to unwind, and “good faith” cooperation or disclosures don’t mean much if the government later decides your disclosures were incomplete or misleading. Treat cooperation like litigation strategy, not a compliance reflex.