Event Details

Topic

Workplace Investigations
by: Andy Tanik & Ashley Wenger-Slaba, Ogletree/Deakins

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Doors open at 11:15
Program begins at 11:45

This presentation will discuss the best practices and recent legal developments in the ever-changing world of workplace investigations. Through the use of vignettes, the presentation will identify strategies for gathering facts, preparing for and conducting interviews, determining who is telling the truth, preparing reports, and following up with the key players. We will also discuss related risks, including potential ethics issues. We will conclude with a list of best practices and how to implement them.

Key Objectives:

1. Why Investigate? Understand the underlying laws that exist is the first step in deciding whether or not to investigate.

2. Post-Complaint, Pre-Interview Steps. A prerequisite to the employer’s ability to conduct a timely investigation is for the employer to receive prompt information about matter to be investigated. In order to encourage the reporting of matters that may become subject of investigations, employers should create a corporate culture that encourages employees to come forward with complaints.

3. Best Practices for Conducting an Investigation. An effective workplace investigation requires both training and planning. This presentation will provide tips on deciding who should/should not conduct the investigation, pre-interview preparation, conducting interviews, interviewing the complaining party, interviewing the accused, interviewing third-party witnesses, resolving credibility, and more.

HR professionals are regularly the “first responder” when there is a complaint. It is important for them to know how to properly respond to a complaint, understand what steps they should take, who to get involved, and who to interview. All of these items and more will be learned.

Speaker Bios:

Andy Tanick has over 25 years of experience defending employment claims and helping employers develop effective policies and avoid litigation. He advises businesses of all sizes on issues such as noncompete agreements, severance negotiations, and employment policies and practices, and has successfully defended cases throughout the country in areas such as discrimination, retaliation and harassment. Andy’s litigation practice also includes his defense of disability access lawsuits under Title III of the ADA and the Minnesota Human Rights Act, ranging from defending owners of restaurants and office buildings in increasingly common “drive-by” litigation to service animal litigation.

Prior to joining the firm, Andy was the Managing Partner of the Minneapolis office of Ford Harrison and prior to that he was the Chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group at the firm of Rider Bennett LLP. He is a frequent lecturer at employment law seminars and has written several employment law articles. During law school, Andy was a Note and Comment Editor, and a published author, on the Minnesota Law Review, and performed at Carnegie Hall in college as a member of the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble.

Ashley Wenger-Slaba advises and represents large and small employers on a wide variety of employment law matters. Having spent a period of time in house, Ashley draws on that experience to work towards finding solutions for her clients that meet both their legal and business needs. Ashley enjoys working with companies to revise policies and procedures to ensure legal compliance, address everyday employment issues that arise with current and former employees, and conduct internal investigations and trainings where necessary. Unfortunately, disputes cannot always be avoided. When litigation arises, Ashley has successfully defended companies’ interests in state and federal court throughout the Midwest, obtaining summary judgment, Rule 12 dismissal, and favorable settlements in numerous forums. She has extensive experience drafting and arguing dispositive and non-dispositive motions, taking and defending depositions, mediating settlements, and responding to administrative charges, investigations, and subpoenas for both single-plaintiff and class/collective action matters. Ashley has also successfully briefed and argued an Eighth Circuit appeal.

In addition to employment law, Ashley has extensive experience in civil rights cases and commercial litigation, including contract disputes and product liability defense. Following law school, Ashley clerked for the Honorable Thomas J. Kalitowski at the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

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