Promoting and enhancing the quality of impartial workplace investigations.™
This is a recording of the AWI Virtual Training Institute: Interviewing Module.
Vida Thomas, AWI-CH, has conducted well over 200 workplace investigations and is experienced in complying with Title IX, Title 5, the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights, and the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights. She has considerable experience investigating matters within a union setting and is particularly adept at investigating complex matters involving high-profile employers and individuals. Vida frequently trains attorneys and human resources professionals on how to conduct legally effective workplace investigations. Vida has practiced employment law for more than two decades, with years of experience in advising employers on all aspects of employment law and human resources management. She also serves as an expert witness in state and federal employment lawsuits, and mediates litigation and non-litigation matters. Vida assists parties and attorneys in resolving employment claims, including but not limited to harassment, discrimination, and retaliation claims; wrongful termination claims; failure to accommodate and statutory leave violations; whistleblowing claims; wage and hour violations; and invasion of privacy claims. Vida also routinely conducts sexual harassment prevention training (including AB1825 compliance training) for state agencies and private companies. She teaches human resources professionals and EEO officers how to conduct effective workplace investigations, and teaches managers and supervisors how to implement legally effective performance reviews. Clients have complimented Vida’s knack for making the law accessible, explaining complex legal concepts in a way that is both thorough and easy to understand. She believes training is most effective when it provides concrete, useful tips for navigating today’s complicated and highly regulated workplace. She has advised clients and conducted dozens of seminars on the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, employee drug testing and sexual harassment investigations. Before joining the Oppenheimer Investigations Group, Vida was an of counsel attorney with Stoel Rives LLP and Weintraub Tobin Chediak Coleman Grodin Law Corporation. She began her legal career as an employment litigator at Kronick Moskovitz and then co-founded Carlsen Thomas, LLP, a boutique employment law firm that offered workplace investigations and employee training throughout
Kathryn Hartrick, AWI-CH is based in Chicago, Illinois.? She is the managing partner of Hartrick Employment Law & Investigations. The firm delivers solutions in the areas of investigations, training/coaching, and employment law counseling. The firm delivers solutions in the areas of investigations, training/coaching, and employment law counseling. Kathryn is also General Counsel/Vice President for the global executive coaching firm, Robertson Lowstuter. She combines over 25 years of employment law expertise with training in investigations, mediation, and executive coaching. Kathryn served as Deputy Commissioner for the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations discrimination agency. She is a former law firm partner/litigator, adjunct law school professor, and volunteer mediator for the EEOC and the Illinois Department of Human Rights. Kathryn has held corporate officer legal and HR positions with global publicly traded. She is an elected Fellow to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, an Illinois Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine; and has a Martindale-Hubbell "AV" rating, the highest ranking in legal ability and ethical standards as determined by lawyer peers. She is currently on the Board of IICLE (the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education). She co-leads AWI’s Chicago-area local circle. For over 20 years she has chaired the North Shore [of Chicago] Labor & Employment Counsel (NSLC), and served on the Boards of NISHRM and NIHRC (local SHRM chapters) for over ten years, including serving as the NISHRM co-president from 2020 to 2022. Kathryn frequently speaks and writes on developments in Illinois employment laws, leave issues, sexual harassment/respect in the workplace, investigations, executive coaching and employment law topics. Her law degree is from Case Western Reserve University School of Law where she served on the Law Review, and she has a BBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.