Networking within a business and setting a tone from the top down is an efficient way to make sure there is a culture of compliance, a panel of in-house compliance officers said Wednesday at the Women Leaders in Compliance and Ethics event at The Union League of Philadelphia.

Alison Tanchyk, the panel's moderator and a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Miami, said during the discussion, which was hosted by Temple University's Beasley School of Law and Ernst & Young, that when a government investigation is not going well for a company, there is oftentimes not a strong culture of compliance.

Having a company's leadership accept that compliance is important is one of the best ways to develop that culture.

“We know it sort of makes their [business leaders] job a little harder, but if they have an understanding about it and we have the time to really bring the organization along, I think that is where you can get a culture of compliance,” said Susan Williamson, senior vice president and chief compliance officer at Endo Pharmaceuticals.

Williamson said as someone who is in charge of compliance, it is important to make sure business leaders understand that compliance functions are not around to say no to everything. She said if a compliance officer is someone who says “no” to everything, the business leaders will be less willing share business strategies that may involve risk.

Sarah Green, global head of financial crimes officer at Vanguard, said aside from making sure business leaders understand the importance of compliance is making sure lower-level employees are also aware of the ramifications of their behavior.

While enforcement is not ideal, it is one way to make sure employees know the importance of complying with the law.

Maya Nayak, assistant privacy officer at Penn Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's Office of Audit, Compliance and Privacy, said when she served as general counsel of the Philadelphia Board of Ethics, government employees who violated rules were given warnings and sometimes civil penalties.

Without enforcement, it is important to have internal partners in the business who view compliance as a top priority. Robin Holts, senior counsel, assistant vice president and chief compliance officer of retirement plan services at Lincoln Financial Group, said in every business unit there is an attorney who is thinking about compliance. She said that helps to spread the culture of compliance.

“One of the things that I like about how the legal department is organized at Lincoln is that we don't sit together,” Holts said. “Each team, legal and compliance, is embedded with their clients.”

She said as projects are being considered the lawyers are constantly involved.

“I find that building relationships outside of a critical decision is key,” Holts said.