On February 24, 2021, Aecus Law hosted its first Virtual Open House with the dual purpose of introducing Aecus Law and facilitating an open discussion about what clients currently need most from external workplace investigators. Given the constraints we have all been operating under during the Covid-19 global pandemic, we wanted to offer a creative and effective way to raise awareness about our presence and answer some key questions about our firm. If you missed the live Open House, we’ve made the recording available on-demand below and have pulled out key takeaways in this article.
Who We Are
Christina founded Aecus Law in November 2020. During the Open House, we shared how Christina is uniquely positioned as an established entrepreneur with Big Law experience, solution sales experience and business partnering skills. Her knowledge and expertise, from practicing employment law at top-flight global law firms (Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, Baker & McKenzie and Littler Mendelson), combined with her natural acumen in developing client relationships, thinking outside the box, and an aptitude for lifelong learning, means Christina is a sound and trustworthy choice when choosing your workplace investigator because she understands the impact of disruption to a client’s business as well as the key employment issues that will affect the scope and course of the investigation and potential outcomes.
What We Do
At the end of the day, clients need an investigator who can skillfully encourage witnesses to share the salient facts, understand, analyze and weigh the evidence alongside witness credibility, and create an investigation report that clearly lays out the conclusions based on those facts and evidence in a way that helps companies determine their course of action. Clients also benefit from knowing that they are working with an investigator who has expertise in employment law, is transparent and responsive about billing and fees, and can deliver an excellent client experience.
How We’re Unique
We believe there are 5 things that make Aecus Law unique:
- We are laser-focused on creating effortless and seamless client experiences.
- We embody the mindset of working smarter, not harder and leveraging tools and resources to make our practice effective and efficient.
- We are a future-minded firm that meets clients where they are and right now, everyone and everything need to be available online and on-demand.
- Our firm values include improving the eco-system of tech-empowered small law firms by incorporating smart business building tools and focusing on being a client-centered law firm.
- We pride ourselves on our commitment to being lifelong learners of entrepreneurialism, diversity, inclusion and equity in the practice of law.
Questions From Attendees
Key questions from attendees included how we bill, our protocols for starting investigations and specifics about how Covid is currently, or will be, affecting workplace investigations.
Billing:
We offer hourly billing as well flat-rate or custom fee arrangements. For clients with predictable investigations workloads and/or an ongoing need for employment advice and counseling, we also offer subscription-based billing.
Protocols for Starting Investigations:
Investigations typically (but not always) start with a complaint to HR or a supervisor that escalates it to HR. Clients ideally reach out to an external investigator immediately to begin the investigation. Our process for onboarding a client or starting an investigation can be as quick as the client needs and is seamless. Our onboarding and matter creation are entirely electronic, so they can be executed quite quickly, and we can begin most investigations within 24-48 hours of a client contacting us. We also offer e-Client Portals so clients can get on-demand updates of where their matter is at any point in time.
Impact of Covid-19 on Investigations:
Covid has undoubtedly impacted workplace investigations both with regard to remote workers and efforts to bring workers back to the workplace. We talk more about these issues in this article (link to another blog article) and as we explain, the landscape of workplace investigations will continue to evolve.