Promoting and enhancing the quality of impartial workplace investigations.™
This is a recording of the AWI Training Institute: Ethics Module.
Alex Sperry, AWI-CH has dedicated his entire career to providing labor and employment law counseling, training, and investigative and litigation services to public and private employers. Since 2013, Mr. Sperry’s practice has focused on conducting impartial workplace investigations. He investigates a variety of allegations, ranging from harassment, discrimination and retaliation, to bullying, workplace violence, failure to accommodate, fraud, breach of confidentiality and employee discipline. Mr. Sperry is an active member of the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI). He frequently presents to AWI’s membership on investigation-related topics. For the past five years, Mr. Sperry has served as a full-time faculty member at AWI’s week-long Training Institute for Workplace Investigators, where he has trained others in the specialized knowledge and skills required to successfully conduct impartial workplace investigations. Mr. Sperry himself graduated from the Institute in 2014, and subsequently earned his AWI-CH designation. Mr. Sperry is also a frequent lecturer on workplace-related issues. He has developed and delivered trainings to thousands of managers and non-supervisory employees throughout California. In particular he has studied and lectured on ethical issues in employment, including presenting workplace ethics training to multiple groups. Mr. Sperry co-authored Applying the California Supreme Court’s “Mixed Motive” Analysis in Workplace Discrimination Investigations, published in the AWI Journal. He also presented the AWI Webinar The Attorney Investigator: Avoiding Ethical Missteps. Mr. Sperry graduated from the University of California at Davis (1996) and from Santa Clara University School of Law (1999). He lives in Sacramento, California.
Christina J. Ro-Connolly, AWI-CH is a Partner with Oppenheimer Investigations Group LLP. Tina has over a decade of labor and employment law experience and joined the firm after serving for 11 years at the Contra Costa County Counsel’s Office, advising departments on legal matters for a workforce of approximately 9,000 employees. Such legal matters included employee discipline, employee complaints, discrimination complaints, wage and hour complaints, alleged labor violations, and labor negotiations. Tina has conducted numerous investigations with Oppenheimer Investigations Group, many of which included allegations against elected officials and high-level executives. Tina leads AB1825 trainings, workplace investigator trainings, and bias trainings and also conducts audits of internal workplace investigations. Tina is a member of the California State Bar and the Contra Costa County Bar Association, a sustaining member of AWI, and a graduate of AWI’s Training Institute for Workplace Investigators. Tina is also an AWI Certificate Holder (AWI-CH) and has also received the certificate from T9 Mastered to conduct Title IX investigations. Tina is also a Member of the Executive Committee of the California Lawyers Association, Labor and Employment Section, as well as a member of the AWI Institute Committee.