Workplace Crisis Response & Investigations

Businesses are experiencing a significant increase in sudden or emerging crisis situations arising from workplace unrest, shareholder and consumer activism, employee protests, mass complaint-filing, social media smear campaigns, catastrophic events and other complex, unexpected challenges. Our multidisciplinary team understands the challenges and potentially severe impact that clients face in crisis situations and has the experience to ferret out the root cause, and guide our clients through not only risk mitigation, but each of the other important public, political and cultural dimensions of a crisis.

HOW WE HELP

For decades—before the current #MeToo movement put workplace investigations and culture in the headlines—Seyfarth has provided strategic and customized solutions to avoid potential crises, and nimble, proactive guidance to navigate crisis situations when they arise. Seyfarth’s Workplace Crisis Response & Investigations team has a wealth of experience in this area. Our team offers comprehensive and uniquely tailored solutions to alleviate the unexpected strain of a crisis situation, all while deftly navigating and responding to the evolving norms of the workplace and society, while protecting our client’s brand and reputation.

We have guided our clients through investigations of all sizes, including some of the most visible and complex in recent years, both in terms of volume and seniority of those implicated. Regardless of the scope of the situation, all investigations can be disruptive to a client’s business and culture. Our approach addresses our clients’ immediate needs with an eye toward mitigating long-term impact, all while minimizing disruption to the business. We deploy resources during the critical beginning stages of an investigation, offering strategic guidance around containing and minimizing harm, prioritizing issues, and developing a strategic plan tailored to the client’s business perspective, all with an eye towards ensuring the investigation itself results in impartial fact finding.

Our team guides clients through every phase of an investigation with an approach customized for the client’s specific circumstance and unique business. We have resources and expertise to manage large scale or high profile investigations, including providing advice regarding public and internal messaging and advising on post-investigation next steps such as discipline, trainings, and infrastructure changes.

Instead of myopically reacting to the immediate needs of an investigation, Seyfarth attorneys apply their litigation and counseling expertise to consider the long term impact of the investigation. To that end, in addition to being thoughtful about employment litigation, we are also mindful of potential event-driven shareholder litigation against the board and company arising from the crisis. Seyfarth attorneys provide decisive guidance in navigating challenges and translate often-nebulous findings and risks into tangible analyses of clients’ decision points.

Seyfarth also applies its deep expertise proactively. Seyfarth guides companies as they define culture and infrastructure to foster a stable working environment. Working not only with companies that have weathered a crisis, we utilize our breadth of expertise to get to the root cause of structural and systemic weaknesses and design solutions to carry the company into the next generation. Additionally, Seyfarth’s mergers and acquisitions experience, married with its employment expertise, uniquely positions our attorneys to evaluate cultural risks impacting the value of a company and, relatedly, how to prioritize remediation.

THE SEYFARTH EXPERIENCE

We understand the advantage of getting in front of a crisis, and our attorneys have helped clients avoid crisis situations altogether through risk assessments and proactive audits to mitigation or declination of actions—helping clients emerge from situations with less impact. In the aftermath of an investigation, we are frequently engaged on matters involving organizational change, designing and revamping complex compliance systems and processes, and developing state-of-the-art technology tools to help our clients with so much more than achieving compliance and avoiding costly, disruptive litigation.