R. Craig Scott
Practice Specialties

Sensitive Investigations

Public agencies have turned to Mr. Scott to conduct their most sensitive workplace investigations.   With three years experience as the mayor of a Southern California city, and an additional ten years as a member of a city council, Mr. Scott understands the workings of government and does not need to be "brought up to speed."   Among others, Mr. Scott has conducted investigations and made findings and recommendations in these situations:

• For a city in Southern California, he investigated over a dozen charges of wrongdoing by the municipality's police chief.   The investigation led to the Chief's termination.

• For one Orange County city, Mr. Scott investigated the questionable conduct of an elected city council member and for another, he investigated an appointed city commissioner's possible sexual harassment of a staff member.

• For a city in Los Angeles County, Mr. Scott conducted an extensive investigation into circumstances leading to termination of the City Manager.

Private employers are obligated to investigate when employees come forward with allegations of wrongful conduct.   Sometimes Mr. Scott acts as the investigator, at other times he hires an investigator, and serves his employer clients in his role as advisor and legal counsel.

Illustrative of his private sector investigations are these:

• For a nation-wide insurance company, Mr. Scott investigated employees' taking kickbacks from contractors.   The investigation resulted in employee terminations and in policy changes.

• For a savings and loan, Mr. Scott investigated the President's allegations that she was sexually harassed by a Board Member.   Mr. Scott determined that the false allegations were made in an attempt to divert attention from the complaining party's incompetent job performance.

• For a charitable foundation, where investigators found hundreds of thousands of dollars embezzled, Mr. Scott laid out management's road map to separate the offending executive and complicit staff members -- without upsetting the sensitive donor and volunteer base.

• For a large health care practice, Mr. Scott commissioned the investigation, selected the investigator, evaluated the results and directed additional investigative efforts.   With conclusive investigative results, he recommended various forms of discipline and individualized retraining for two female nurses who created a sexually hostile work environment, and for the male doctor who did not welcome his subordinates' conduct, but who also was not sufficiently assertive in stopping it.

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