The independent commission tasked with investigating the causes of the financial crisis is ramping up-and that means companies that may find themselves in its cross-hairs ought to be prepared, according to lawyers in the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

The bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which was created by the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act enacted in May, is expected to announce its 10 members shortly, according to Mark Oesterle, chief republican counsel and deputy chief of staff for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

"That should happen pretty imminently," Oesterle said during a June 19 Webcast sponsored by Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

Michael Bopp, Chair of Gibson Dunn's Financial Services Crisis Team, noted that the Commission is remarkable for its "incredibly broad and yet detailed investigative mandate."

"It's very rare for Congress to create investigative committees and even rarer to create one with such broad and expansive authorities," Bopp said, noting that there have been just six investigative congressional committees in the last 20 years.

Unlike the Pecora Commission of the 1930s, which was actually an inquiry of the Senate Banking Committee, the FCIC is an independent commission. The Commission, which is tasked with examining the domestic and global causes of the financial crisis and investigating specific institutions, will have subpoena power and will likely have staff deposition authority. He also pointed to language in the statute that created the Commission as evidence that the FCIC's information gathering won't be limited to federal agencies.

As a result, any companies that received a substantial amount of federal assistance—not just TARP direct investments, but those participating in the various federal guarantee and liquidity facilities—ought to be prepared, said GDC Partner John Olson.

"Those who may be called or have officers or former officers or directors called to participate in proceedings by giving testimony or issuing documents need to be thinking ahead about how they're going to handle that," Olson said.

That "has real risk" in terms of both civil and criminal liability, he said, because the information may be put forward, at least in summary form, in public hearings and also may be reachable by prosecutors and civil litigants through subpoenas.

"Ultimately, there will be a report by the commission ... and it sounds as though it's going to name names," Olson said.

In response to the question of whether the receipt of inquiry or request to cooperate from the Commission creates a disclosable event, Olson said it depends.

While a request for information itself may not be disclosable, he said, "If you're going to have somebody testifying, or you're producing documents, particularly pursuant to a subpoena, the chances of that information becoming public are very great."

"That's going to be something that's going to be of significant interest to investors if that happens," Olson told Compliance Week. "I think you have to think seriously about making public disclosure and getting ahead of that news."

The Commission's report is due in December of 2010. Meanwhile, congressional leaders in both chambers say they hope to have a regulatory reform bill on the president's desk by the end of this year.

However, Oesterle noted that there's still a "question on the timing of when the reform legislation will be finalized ... I'm not sure its going to happen as quickly as some think."

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