Conducting An Effective Internal Investigation – April 21, 2020 (Santa Monica)

Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP is pleased to offer our full-day seminar, Conducting An Effective Internal Investigation, in three locations:

SAN FRANCISCO – April 7, 2020

SANTA MONICA – April 21, 2020

The 2019 legislative overhaul of California’s harassment laws puts increased pressure on human resources professionals and other internal investigators to acquire – and maintain – the skills necessary to ensuring a legally compliant response to internal hostile environment and discrimination claims.

The new statutory affirmation that a “stray remark” may be sufficient to prove discrimination, combined with the expanding definition of “hostile environment harassment,” means that now more than ever, employers must be able to clearly demonstrate that the enforcement of equal employment opportunity and anti-harassment policies is an essential part of the organization’s mission – and nothing demonstrates that more immediately than a good faith grievance procedure administered by trained investigators.

During this nationally-renowned, engaging and interactive seminar, your presenters – all senior employment law attorneys with extensive experience as investigators and trainers – will take you from claim intake through issue resolution.

This is the full-day version of the program that has been presented annually for the last ten years at the SHRM Annual conference, and internally at dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Human resources professionals, security personnel, loss prevention and risk management personnel, and in-house counsel.

YOU WILL LEARN:

• How to Handle Claim Intake: Ensure that you use this critical opportunity to identify the issues being alleged, how to work with a reluctant claimant, gather the material facts presented by the claimant, avoid the pitfalls of a secrecy pact, and create appropriate confirming documentation.
• Whether (and How) to Implement Interim Actions: It’s crucial to determine whether the respondent should be placed on administrative leave, and under what conditions. We will include specific content on threat investigation concerns and related administrative leave issues.
• When to Limit the Scope of an Investigation: Understand the “art” behind ordering interviewees to appropriately limit the scope of the investigation process, while minimizing the potential for retaliation.
• How to Ask Effective Questions, through participation in a detailed, seven-part sexual harassment case study, taking participants through each of the key aspects of a professional internal investigation (claim intake, respondent interview, and witness interviews), with exploration of implicit and confirmation bias concerns.
• How to Use Credibility Assessment Tools, including assessment of corroborating and circumstantial evidence, and the interesting challenges posed by party and witness demeanor concerns.
• How to Apply the Applicable Burden of Proof for Alleged Claims.
• How to Write Comprehensive, Legally Defensible Investigation Reports.

COST:  $475 per person – includes all Course Materials and Continental Breakfast

TO REGISTER:

• SAN FRANCISCO – April 7, 2020, 8:30am – 4:00pm: email Mary Spadaro

• SANTA MONICA – April 21, 2020, 8:30am – 4:00pm: email Karen Torres

MCLE and HRCI credit available.

REGISTER EARLY! Attendance is limited to 25 attendees per session. This gives us the opportunity to spend more time with each attendee and answer as many questions as possible.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellations must be received in writing by email to Karen Torres seven (7) days before the seminar in order to receive a refund. No refunds will be given after that time. Attendee substitutions may be made at any time.

For content-related questions, email Glen Kraemer or Steve Hirschfeld.

Questions regarding registration? Santa Monica – email Karen Torres; San Francisco – email Mary Spadaro.