A company’s general counsel calls her outside counsel, saying that she fears a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of her company. An employee committed wrongdoing six years ago, she says, and although the employee apparently took no particular action to cover it up, nobody discovered the wrongdoing until today.

Her outside counsel might tell her not to worry: The statute of limitations for SEC actions is five years, so any SEC action seeking civil penalties is time-barred.