Promoting and enhancing the quality of impartial workplace investigations.™
Credit Available - See Credits tab below.
Total Credits: 1.0 SHRM, 1.0 CA MCLE
Session Description:
In the U.S., the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) provides extensive guidance to employers and employees about how to understand, interpret, and apply U.S. employment law. The EEOC’s seminal Vicarious Liability for Unlawful Harassment by Supervisors from 1999 has been a foundational document for the workplace investigation industry. It was an early resource on how to evaluate credibility of witnesses in harassment investigations and continues to be cited in AWI training materials…until now. On April 29, 2024, the EEOC released its long-awaited new guidance, Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, which replaced the 1999 guidance. At 189 pages, there is a lot to cover, but this webinar will focus on the must-know, key details for workplace investigators, with a particular focus on how this guidance will impact states who rely on federal EEO laws.
Learning Objectives:
Disclaimer:
The contents of this webinar and the positions taken are those of the presenter only, may be time-sensitive, and are not warranted, endorsed or otherwise recommended by AWI and are not intended to provide legal advice.
SHRM PDCs: 1.0
California MCLEs: 1.0
| AWI EEOC Webinar Handouts (0.47 MB) | 7 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Eli Makus, AWI-CH, is an employment attorney whose practice is focused on conducting impartial workplace investigations. Eli is the Managing Partner of Van Dermyden Makus Law Corporation. With thirty attorneys, Van Dermyden Makus is one of the largest law firms in the country devoted to providing neutral legal services, including conducting workplace investigations. Drawing upon his extensive employment law background, Eli conducts complex and sensitive investigations involving a variety of workplace complaints for public and private employers throughout California. Eli regularly trains on employment law topics, including training internal and external investigators on how to conduct impartial workplace investigations. Prior to focusing on workplace investigations, Eli served as in-house employment and medical staff counsel for a large healthcare provider. There, in addition to providing employment law advice and counsel, he conducted and supervised investigations and helped develop an internal investigations program. Before that, he worked for a large Northern California law firm representing employers in a variety of employment law matters. Eli is the Immediate Past President for the AWI Board of Directors and regularly serves as Faculty for AWI’s Training Institute. Eli earned his law degree from King Hall School of Law at the University of California, Davis.
Erich Knorr is a Partner at Van Dermyden Makus Law Corporation and leads the Tempe, Arizona office. He is licensed to practice law in Arizona and California. Erich is an experienced investigator who has conducted complex investigations in many different industries in the public and private sectors. In the public sector, he regularly conducts investigations for public safety departments and is well versed in the Public Safety Officers’ Procedural Bill of Rights Act and the Firefighters Procedural Bill of Rights Act. In the private sector, Erich has investigated claims for organizations ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. He has handled numerous high-profile investigations involving top executives and elected government officials. He also has experience testifying in support of his investigations. Erich develops and conducts trainings on best practices in workplace investigations.
Elena Paraskevas-Thadani is the Founder and President of EPT Legal, a New York based law firm that specializes in workplace conflict resolution, through investigations, executive coaching, training, and mediation. Elena has practiced law for almost 25 years and is admitted in New York, Connecticut and Washington DC. She is a former equity partner of the largest global employer and labor practice in the world. As a litigator, she represented employees and employers in complex and multi-party class action, wage and hour, and discrimination lawsuits in federal and state courts. Elena also successfully represented companies undergoing Department of Labor, Attorney General, EEOC and other government agency audits and investigations. Elena has conducted sensitive workplace investigations involving claims of discrimination, harassment, misconduct, corporate theft/embezzlement, bullying, or wrongdoing on the part of C-Level and other executives or employees. She has conducted and advised on investigations in many industries, including the financial industry, technology sector, law enforcement, hospitality, retail, healthcare, and for educational institutions (including Title IX). Elena is Title IX certified and is licensed as a Private Investigator by the New York Department of State. Elena is an experienced trainer having conducted and developed hundreds of Equal Employment Opportunity trainings on professional conduct, nonharassment, diversity, litigation avoidance and other employment compliance topics. Additionally, as a certified and experienced executive coach, Elena has assisted company leaders, C-Level executives, law firm partners and service professionals manage their teams more effectively, build their influence in their field, and increase their business development success. Elena is an experienced arbitrator and mediator certified by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and by the New York Peace Institute.