John Bowers QC sets out some ground rules for conducting a successful investigation
- Clarify precisely the scope of the investigation you are undertaking before you start it.
Many lawyers are being asked to lead investigations into employment issues, often of sexual harassment allegations. These investigations, of course, come in all shapes and sizes and raise very different issues. I concentrate here on employment investigations but even they may involve regulatory or governance issues as well as strict employment points. A later article will deal with privilege issues.
Sometimes it will be a lawyer alone investigating, at other times (s)he will be assisted by others. Some will be formal, others informal. Some will be public sector, others private. Some may be provided for by statute, such as designated independent person investigations which used to be required before senior council officers were suspended or dismissed in England and Wales and now survive only in the latter. Most will be set up in an ad hoc manner. In some cases there will be recognised parties (the complainant and the accused), in others it will be more general.
