Effective in-house leaders create a corporate culture where team members feel comfortable raising concerns about the company. But when employees do turn to the general counsel with potentially serious claims, how should general counsels handle the whistleblower?

This is among the questions posed by an in-house lawyer's lawsuit against French conglomerate Compagnie de Saint-Gobain. The whistleblower, Amiel Gross, is the former litigation counsel for the company. In his complaint, Gross alleges that he told his supervisor, deputy general counsel Carol Gray, and the company's CEO at the time, Tom Kinisky, that he believed toxic chemicals from the company's factories had contaminated drinking water in communities in Ohio and New Jersey, and nothing was being done to remedy the situation.