Investigations into allegations of workplace misconduct are routinely used to address issues of potential misconduct and policy or legal violations. Allegations can pose significant legal and reputational risk to public and private employers of every size, including educational institutions. Effective investigations can mitigate legal risks, while promoting a fair and productive work environment. Workplace investigations can help prevent misconduct from reoccurring. Essentially, it's about addressing allegations seriously and ensuring accountability within the organization.
When an employer learns of allegations of wrongdoing, our attorneys focus on helping with the critical process of investigating those claims. Our attorneys are sought after to conduct a wide range of significant, and often, complex workplace investigations. Use of our experienced attorneys puts a public or private employer in the best position to understand the facts and then make the appropriate legal judgments. We know legal judgements include making informed personnel decisions and litigation defenses. Our investigations reflect this knowledge. For public employers, we know the importance of due process obligations in conducting workplace investigations. We help clients protect their interests through sensitive internal investigations that ensure our clients make the right decisions to meet their legal obligations and mitigate risks.
How We Work
We conduct impartial and non-adversarial investigations that meet the highest standards of integrity, impartiality, and competence. We treat everyone with dignity and respect. Our services include personnel misconduct and Faragher-Ellerth (hostile work environment) investigations. For some employers, we advise on how to conduct investigations. For others, we conduct workplace investigations into misconduct, integrity issues, violations of the rules of conduct, sexual harassment, and bullying allegations. In conducting the investigations, we interview complainants, subjects, and witnesses, prepare witness statements, and prepare reports of investigations with (or without) factual and legal findings. Our reports of investigation are self-contained and allow for examination and review by a third-party. Our investigations are conducted discreetly, with minimum disruption to your workplace’s functioning.
In addition to preparing reports of investigation, we advise and prepare separate recommendation memoranda. If the allegations are substantiated, we address whether disciplinary or non-disciplinary corrective action should be taken. We are skilled at identifying appropriate charges of misconduct related to violations of law, or internal policies and rules of conduct. Our attorneys have vast experience evaluating appropriate penalties, including non-disciplinary actions such as training or counseling, using existing law or employer’s internal policy.
What We Do
Personnel Misconduct Investigations
We assist with reports of wrongdoing brought directly to the attention of management, human resources, employee relations, the general counsel’s office, or through such other means as an employer’s hotline. We specialize in providing well-structured, targeted investigations on behalf of public agencies, private employers, and educational institutions, with minimal disruptions to the workplace. Our attorneys investigate an array of workplace misconduct allegations, such as violations of standards of conduct, ethical standards, drug and alcohol policies, outside employment policies, and whistleblower allegations. In conducting personnel misconduct investigations, we call upon our decades of experience litigating personnel disputes for employees and employers alike.
What We Do
EEO and Faragher-Ellerth Harassment Investigations
We also specialize in conducting investigations into allegations of employment discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and other forms of allegations based on anti-discrimination in employment laws, as well as allegations EEO-like in nature. While many employers already have an EEO/Diversity office to address discrimination complaints, we know that management sometimes conducts its own investigation into these types of allegations. Our attorneys meet the EEOC’s training requirements to investigate such claims. This enables our attorneys to have first-hand knowledge of the EEOC’s standards for quality investigations into EEO and EEO-type claims.
For decades, employers have been addressing an ever-increasing number of workplace harassment and hostile work environment claims. When these claims are based on a Title VII protected category such as race, color, sex, national origin, or religion, most employers today have an anti-harassment policy in place to address them. These workplace policies are the result of two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases in 1998 known as Faragher and Ellerth. These cases created an affirmative defense for employers from vicarious liability in sexual harassment claims brought against a supervisory employee. Since then, the courts have extended the affirmative defense to harassment claims of all other types of protected characteristics found in Title VII, such as race, color, national origin, and religion. The Faragher-Ellerth affirmative defense has two conditions. If the employer can meet these conditions, it will have a complete defense to the harassment claim. Those conditions are: “(a) that the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any sexually harassing behavior, and (b) that the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise.”
To prove the exercise of reasonable care to prevent and correct harassing behavior, most employers have an anti-harassment policy that includes a complaint procedure followed by a prompt investigation. These investigations are initiated and directed by management. We have extensive experience conducting these investigations. We know and meet the standards in the EEOC’s Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace.
Non-EEO Harassment and Reprisal Investigations
Many employers prohibit harassment and retaliation in non-EEO contexts. Although Title VII law may not technically apply to reports of wrongdoing of this nature, we know how to navigate non-EEO based claims of harassment and retaliation.