As companies strive to integrate compliance into the fiber of their business cultures, many are turning to compliance committees to enhance their compliance programs.  A compliance committee at the management level can help mitigate corruption risk for companies operating multi-nationally, it can facilitate the relationship between compliance and business personnel and it can demonstrate to regulators that a company is serious about compliance.  But, a compliance committee can also add additional bureaucracy, result in the loss of privilege protections for sensitive information and facilitate enterprise-wide chatter about sensitive issues.  This article weighs the pros and cons and discusses what types of companies may benefit from having a compliance committee.  The second article in this series will discuss the mechanics of forming and operating such a committee; a third article will discuss best practices for operating a compliance committee.  See also “How to Structure Chief Compliance Officer Reporting Lines to Maximize the Efficacy of Anti-Corruption Compliance (Part One of Three)” (Nov. 6, 2013), Part Two of Three (Nov 20, 2013), Part Three of Three (Dec. 4, 2013).