Home > Journals > WMLR > Vol. 67 (2025-2026) > Iss. 2 (2025)
William & Mary Law Review
Abstract
Whistleblowers are pivotal in ensuring transparency and accountability in numerous public and private industries. They ensure that existing laws are enforced and hold employers accountable when they seek to evade them. Recognizing the significant value provided by whistleblowers, and that private actors within organizations are often in a better position than government enforcement officials to uncover wrongdoing, Virginia has enacted several whistleblower protection statutes, including the Virginia Whistleblower Protection Law (VWPL), which advocates lauded for “provid[ing] broad protections against retaliation and fundamentally alter[ing] the landscape for” Virginia whistleblowers.
While the VWPL seems promising, two provisions of the law, its statute of limitations and the remedies available to those who bring successful claims, are deficient in ways that discourage reporting of illegal activity under the statute. House Bill 770, which would have amended the statute of limitations and remedies provisions of the VWPL, offered a fair starting point for addressing the statute’s deficiencies. Unfortunately, while Virginia’s House and Senate passed the bill, Governor Youngkin ultimately vetoed it.
This Note discusses the efficacy of the VWPL compared to other whistleblower statutes and suggests best-practice recommendations for creating functional whistleblower laws. Part I provides a brief overview of federal whistleblower laws, including the benefits provided to the public by robust whistleblower protections, the key requirements of effective whistleblower statutes, and the need for whistleblower protections at the state level. Part II discusses the nature of employment relationships in Virginia prior to the VWPL’s passage and summarizes the necessary elements of a VWPL claim. Part III examines the VWPL’s strengths—the provisions of the law that increase access to whistleblower protections. Part IV discusses the VWPL’s weaknesses and how they diminish the statute’s effectiveness. Finally, Part V examines House Bill 770’s proposed amendments to the VWPL and argues for its eventual passage into law.
This abstract has been taken from the author's introduction.