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These are a few of my favorite things… and people to follow and refer to time and time again

This guest blog by Mary Shirley is the Living Your Best Compliance Life columnist’s orientation to Ethics and Compliance if you will.

by Mary Shirley 4 min

    Over the years, a number of folks new to the field have passed by me for induction. I typically supply a list of my favorite resources at the outset and the following is what it looks like. A couple of disclaimers before we begin. 1. This isn’t an exclusive list of people I follow for value-add contributions, there are numerous people, websites and other materials beyond this starter pack that are amazing, but time and space are of the essence as always 2. Some of the individuals below are people with whom I am affiliated. Make no mistake I am listing these resources because I truly think they are valuable and that’s also why I have sought out certain individuals on the list to communicate with or gotten to know them as friends – because of the fascinating work they do and their extreme competence.


    Sign Up to These Websites

    The FCPA Blog

    This is one of the first publications I ever signed up to. The first was a daily email back in 2010 that was absolutely hilarious. There would be one or two line sentences in every day, cheeky language and then a link provided to more of a story about the Ethics or Compliance issue. Its frequency would later be whittled down to around once a week and then it fell off my radar completely. I don’t believe it exists anymore but if anyone knows what I’m speaking of and can hook me up to a modern day iteration, that would be so appreciated. Or if you know who was responsible for it, I’d love to be able to send some fan mail to that person(s). I have genuinely missed this daily email in my life!

    Back to The FCPA Blog.

    Obviously with a specialty in the FCPA space it’s a great resource for learning about FCPA cases and analysis soon after the government settlements. It also covers broader subject matters and associated commentary. For me this is the ultimate oldie but goodie resource. When you can’t supplement your training and communications with real life examples from your organization, the FCPA Blog will have a real life scenario from some other poor company for you to take advantage of without suffering the breach yourself. Reliable posting and a good website for searching for keywords of cases if you’re looking for something in particular to support a case you’re trying to make to management.

    Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics

    One of the few entities to maintain a thriving LinkedIn Group, the SCCE (and sister organization the HCCA for those in the healthcare space) is not just a resource with their mailings, but a community too. I love their conferences and the staff are always so sweet. Bonus feature is their jobs board, nice and niche for the Ethics and Compliance space.

    Radical Compliance

    Matt Kelly’s thought leadership repository, Radical Compliance is a wealth of information for inquisitive minds. Similar to Alison (below), but in a completely different style, Matt takes a no BS approach and calls it how he sees it. And sometimes in a cheeky way. But that doesn’t make his commentary any less intelligent. In addition to covering interesting cases, Radical Compliance also walks us through academic analysis of government memos, guidance, regulatory updates and every Friday, produces the Jobs Report. The Jobs Report is a light hearted read that shares the movements of our peers so that we can celebrate their new chapters.

    Corruption, Crime and Compliance Blog

    A Volkov Law effort, this blog is a great resource for those of us who wish to stay up to date with international Compliance and US healthcare Compliance. The blog posts also cover trade sanctions and antitrust developments which are not always strong areas for all other Compliance websites so it’s a well appreciated resource for these topics. Michael Volkov also offers webinars from time to time throughout the year on all of these subject matters. He has a pretty fair payment structure in my opinion – attend the webinar for free and access to recordings is by payment.

    Compliance Week

    Note: I am on Compliance Week’s advisory board. The quality of Compliance Week articles is renowned and signing up to their newsletter gives you access to a ton, and I mean a ton of webinars, some with continuing education credits and at no cost to attend.

    Corporate Compliance Insights

    Well, this one is hardly a surprise. The Living Your Best Compliance Life column features on this website, and the Great Women in Compliance podcast has a landing page on the site also. With that declaration out of the way, this website is really a diverse publication from various voices and experts in the field. The contributions are constant, there is a dedicated Compliance podcasts page and Sarah Hadden is always thinking about ways to keep the offerings relevant, cutting edge and helpful for Compliance practitioners. She has told me that there will never be a pay wall for this content. And that, that my friends, is worth celebrating.

    People worth your follow

    Alison Taylor

    She claims not to be an expert in the ESG space, yet she is someone that everyone in the ESG space listens to and those of us who aren’t, view as an authority too. Alison has a no BS approach to life and that shines through in her LinkedIn posts as well. Alison is adept at highlighting real life company organizations and typing the situations back to thoughtful ethics and integrity implications. She’s also an engaging and passionate speaker, if you see her on the line up for a conference and symposium, I’d at least check out her session.

    Tom Fox

    I learned about half of what I know substantively about Compliance from reading Tom Fox’s blog. These days he’s more prolific at sharing his thought leadership by way of a multitude of Ethics, Compliance and Leadership podcasts and he created the Compliance Podcast Network as a platform on which to showcase his podcasts and those of other podcasts in our space – and beyond! Tom has been doing Compliance for many years now but one of the things I love the most about him is that he moves with the times – from blog posts to podcasts is but one example. Tom recently innovated with what to me, is the first targeted children’s book on Compliance: “Being a Compliance Officer is Awesome”. Looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next!

    Hui Chen

    Hui Chen is famous… ok Compliance famous… for being the original author of the Department of Justice Evaluation of Corporate Compliance programs guidance (it was updated in June 2020) that was well received by Compliance Officers for being specific and targeted to help us action and polish controls and other initiatives to meet government expectations. Though Hui is no longer at the DOJ, her views continue to carry a tremendous amount of weight in the Compliance community, where she has remained active sharing her thoughts at conferences, consulting for organizations in her own capacity and now as a team member at Ropes and Gray’s R&G Insights Lab.

    Jonathan Marks

    Jonathan is particularly strong on the topics of controls and investigations, areas for which he is well known and is very generous with his views. Following Jonathan gave me insight into the fraud pentagon and a concrete definition for internal controls. He also stays on top of when new FCPA Opinion Procedure Releases are out which is super helpful given there wasn’t much fanfare around the last one that was released in January 2022. I only caught wind of it because I follow Jonathan.

    Kristy Grant-Hart

    The author of perhaps the most beloved and well known book in Ethics and Compliance, Kristy has introduced video tips to her extensive portfolio of resources for the Compliance community and you can catch these while scrolling for inspiration and ideas on LinkedIn. Kristy’s consultancy firm Spark Compliance Consulting and Kristy herself each have blogs for more actionable ways to level up your Compliance program.

    I recommend connecting with or following others in the profession or outside of it that share words that resonate, inspire and challenge you, this is but only a start.

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    Mary Shirley
    Mary Shirley

    Mary Shirley is a New Zealand-qualified lawyer with 18 years of ethics and compliance experience that includes working for data privacy and antitrust regulators, in-house and private practice/consultancy across five countries and four regions of the world.
    She specializes in international Compliance programs, leveraging her love of travel and learning about different customs and cultures.
    Mary also co-founded the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, which aims to create a platform for the outstanding achievements of women in the field and sharing ideas and provide learning opportunities for everyone in compliance.
    She co-authored the book, “Sending the Elevator Back Down: What We’ve Learned from Great Women in Compliance” (CCI Press, 2020) and is getting her second book, focused on trail blazing and innovative ways to level up Compliance programs, ready for release in the imminent future.
    She has been bestowed the honors of being named a Compliance Week Top Mind 2019, Trust Across America 2020 Top Thought Leader in Trust and Excellence in Compliance Awards 2022 Mentor of the Year.

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