A top U.S. Justice Department lawyer and a corporate in-house counsel found common ground Thursday in a discussion about how to make an effective compliance presentation to regulators: Don't wait to engage prosecutors.

“If you believe in your compliance program and you're proud of the work that it's done, either at the time of the misconduct or now, it's good to start talking about it early and providing information about it early,” Rebecca Rohr, principal deputy chief of the Justice Department's Fraud Section, said.

Defense attorneys can develop a deeper sense of an agency's concerns if they begin a dialogue before the compliance presentation, Rohr said in Washington at the annual Women, Influence & Power in Law conference.

And she stressed the need for companies to demonstrate that they “get it.” Companies should approach investigations with candor, she said. A company's ability to show fixes can help make the difference between an agency imposing a corporate monitor or determining that the current compliance program can stand alone.

“I think it's important for counsel, in making these presentations to the government, to show that they get it—to owning it if the compliance program at the time was not where it should have been to explaining in as much detail as the prosecutors want how a compliance program is better now and how it addresses the particular issues prosecutors are looking at,” Rohr said.

Covington & Burling's Mythili Raman, who formerly led the Justice Department's Criminal Division, moderated the panel. Rohr was joined by Nora Dannehy, United Technologies Corp.'s associate general counsel for global ethics and compliance.

Dannehy, who served as Connecticut's former acting U.S. attorney, before joining United Technologies, said companies need to have candid conversations to show credibility and prove that holes in the compliance program have been plugged.

When asked by Raman, a former acting assistant attorney general in Eric Holder Jr.'s Justice Department, about the biggest mistake and best move a company can make while under government scrutiny, Dannehy urged patience.

“From the perspective of a company going into the government, what is frustrating is that they're looking at a particular transaction or larger scheme,” Dannehy said. “But educating them on what your company is, how complex it is, where it does business—that can be a difficult task because you may feel that they have blinders on. And if they only understood how you do business or what a small piece this was, it would help.”

“It takes time,” she said.