Workplace investigations require a sensitive, nuanced, and strategic approach and well-trained counsel to support employers and boards of directors in making informed decisions based on well-reasoned findings. Failing to conduct proper workplace investigations can have monumental repercussions for employers, impacting employee morale, business operations, brand, and reputation, in addition to potentially resulting in significant legal exposure.

Our Workplace Investigations practice group conducts, manages, supervises, and advises on every aspect of workplace investigations. Our clients rely on our knowledge and experience to address myriad, complicated employment issues, including harassment and discrimination, financial misconduct, bullying, ethics, interpersonal conflicts, and violations of employers’ policies, procedures, and practices. In addition to other high-profile matters, we have considerable experience navigating investigations requiring board of director and senior management and leadership involvement.

Our Services

We work with our clients’ boards of directors, executives, in-house counsel, and human resources professionals to provide guidance in advance of, during, and in the aftermath of a workplace investigation. Our services include:

• Planning, conducting, and managing impartial workplace investigations that provide clients with substantive fact-finding reports to allow them to make effective and informed decisions
• Recognizing and valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplace investigations and embracing the many nuanced issues that arise as individuals interact at work
• Providing guidance to support compliance with laws involving and impacting workplace investigations
• Helping clients identify situations that require a workplace investigation or where an investigation would be a good practice
• Development and execution of resolution strategies, including mediation and counsel during transition periods and preventive measures
• Training client teams on conducting impartial workplace investigations. Our training modules can be presented to employees on a local or national scale, online or in person.

Our Team

Our Workplace Investigations practice group is chaired by Britt-Marie Cole-Johnson, a partner who served three terms on the Board of Directors of Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI)—and has served as a faculty member for the AWI Training Institute for Workplace Investigators, taught the Workplace Investigations Basics Seminar, and worked on a task force to create an advanced training for experienced workplace investigators. Members of our team are experienced in conducting impartial workplace investigations, including four members that hold workplace investigator certificates from the AWI. We regularly present about workplace investigations and related topics for firm clients, as well as specialized industry organizations including the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) chapters, AWI, and more.