Archived Webinar

Conducting Internal Employee Investigations Outside the U.S.

Overview

  • Event Held On: 1/26/2010

Full Event Description

When an American employee falls under suspicion of some type of on-job wrongdoing—be it bribery, sabotage, accounting fraud, sexual harassment, antitrust collusion or some other wrongful act—conscientious and compliant U.S. multinationals have a good idea how to respond. By now, after so many highly-publicized corporate scandals, strategies for conducting a domestic-U.S. internal investigation are becoming increasingly similar, although “best practices”’ differ depending on the context.

And so, when conducting an internal investigation overseas, a U.S. multinational may feel tempted to pull out its domestic-U.S. kit of state-of-the art investigation tools and strategies. But employment and data protection laws differ widely outside the U.S., which means American investigation strategies need significant retooling before export. After all, no multinational investigating illegality abroad can afford to be accused, itself, of illegality in how it conducts its investigation.

This session covers how to adapt U.S.-style internal investigation strategies to workplaces outside the U.S. This is an issue-spotting overview of the 30 data and employment law issues most likely to arise when a U.S. multinational conducts a U.S.-style investigation internationally.

The session will address these 30 points by breaking them down into the four stages of an internal investigation: (1) launching an international investigation framework, (2) initial response to an allegation/suspicion, (3) interviewing witnesses and (4) communications, discipline and remedial measures.

What you can expect

  • Launch an internal investigation framework for conducting internal investigations outside the U.S.
  • Lead an internal investigation in workplace outside the U.S
  • Respond to an allegation or suspicion of wrong doing arising outside the U.S.
  • Interview witnesses outside the U.S.
  • Discipline wrongdoers, implement remedial measures and communicate with employee populations after investigating an incident of wrongdoing outside the U.S.


Who should attend: Compliance officers and other compliance professionals at multinationals , In-house and law firm lawyers who conduct investigations internationally, Consultants in compliance, human resources, and litigation, Human resources professionals at multinationals, Privacy officers and other privacy professionals at multinationals, Internal auditors and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance professionals at multinationals, Risk and safety officers/managers at multinationals

Speaker Biographies

Donald C. Dowling, Jr., White & Case LLP

Donald C. Dowling, Jr.
International Employment Counsel, White & Case LLP

Donald C. Dowling, Jr., International Employment Partner at White & Case LLP in New York City, leads a team of lawyers who exclusively practice cross-border employment law for multinational employer clients. Don and his team advise on multi-jurisdictional employment-law compliance on matters including: global M&A deals, global reductions-in-force, global codes of conduct/HR policies, global HR information systems/data privacy, and expatriates. Don is ranked in the top tier (“Leading”) in the only competitive ranking of U.S. international labor/employment lawyers, London-based PLC Which Lawyer?, he is ranked by Chambers as one of the top 34 labor/employment lawyers in New York, and he is ranked by Legal 500 and ABA/IBA Who's Who of Management Labour & Employment Lawyers. Ethisphere named Don as the only employment lawyer in the U.S. on its list of "2010 Attorneys Who Matter." As an adjunct law school professor he teaches International Employment Law and European Union Law. He has spoken worldwide (in English and Spanish) and published dozens of articles on international employment and international data privacy law, including articles in law journals of the ABA and of Cornell and Northwestern University law schools, and including chapters in books published by Matthew Bender, Thomson/West, Kluwer, PLI, Aspen, and others. One of his articles is excerpted in two different West Group casebooks, and another has been cited by a state supreme court. He is a member of the advisory boards of editors of the publications EuroWatch, International HR Journal, and the International Labor & Employment Laws treatise series, and the NYU Center for Labor and Employment Law.

Download

Listed below are the materials associated with this event: