Sarah M. Hall and Zachary S. Taylor, attorneys in the White Collar Defense and Internal Investigations Group, in the firm’s Washington, DC, and Newark, offices, respectively, co-authored an article in the ABA Criminal Justice Magazine, titled “Internal Investigation: Best Practices and Lessons Learned from the Sally Yates Report on Allegations of Abuse in Women’s Professional Soccer.”
Following is an excerpt:
In light of the explosive internal investigations report authored by Sally Yates on behalf of the US Soccer Federation, covering allegations of abuse in women’s professional soccer, this article will examine important lessons learned for companies in the context of workplace culture internal investigations. Topics include the risks for companies of letting internal complaints languish and what happens when complainants take their case to the media; handling allegations of misconduct and sexual abuse in the era of #MeToo; and the pros and cons related to a company’s decision to release a full report to the public. In order to place the Yates report in the context of other publicly known and recent sports, #MeToo, or workplace culture investigations, we present a comparator chart that illustrates some of the key characteristics and differences between such investigations. We will also examine best practices relating to the investigative methods used by the Yates investigation and challenges posed by this type of investigation, such as difficulties in obtaining materials from third parties, problems posed by unwilling witnesses, and the difficulties in collecting evidence in the context of a multiyear look-back period.
