In recent years, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been beating the self-disclosure drum with a series of policies designed to encourage and reward corporate self-disclosure of misconduct. Under the policies, the ultimate reward—a declination—is within reach for most companies willing to come forward and "timely" self-disclose misconduct.

Yet, these policies, and recently publicized declinations and resolutions, also make clear that self-disclosure alone does not beget a declination. To the contrary, self-disclosure is only the beginning of a long road for companies hoping to achieve a declination. While "timely" is not defined in most of the policies, recent resolutions suggest that, to earn a declination, companies need to disclose within weeks, or perhaps even hours, of confirming the existence of any misconduct. After making the fraught decision to disclose without full information, a company's ongoing cooperation obligations begin.

Indeed, the DOJ's policies outline substantial cooperation requirements, including an ongoing obligation to disclose non-privileged facts and the voluntary preservation, collection, and disclosure of relevant documents, including documents that are overseas and potentially subject to foreign disclosure prohibitions or other limitations. Likewise, companies can expect their compliance program to be scrutinized—both at the time of the misconduct and the time of resolution—and there will be an expectation of substantial remediation.