Best Practices for Investigations In Remote Environments

Aside from enabling continuity during COVID-19 restrictions, remote workflows offer a number of benefits in investigations. A standardized, smooth approach to enable remote investigations will help avoid an accumulation of backlogged matters and help legal and compliance teams remain in good standing with regulators, as well as help keep their organizations compliant. Remote workflows eliminate the costs and delays involved with travel and scheduling numerous in-person meetings and interviews. Technology can now enable sophisticated features for remote interviews, document sharing, record keeping, privacy, security and other key elements of an investigation that make the entire process highly efficient.

For example, in one investigation spurred by two separate whistleblower complaints relating to accounting improprieties and other allegations, the team had less than two weeks to assess the claims in order to meet year-end reporting requirements. Nearly a dozen interviews among individuals across the U.S. and Canada were needed. In-person workflows would have required travel and the involvement of a large team of lawyers and investigators. Using video-enabled technologies, a single team comprised of in-house counsel, outside counsel and third-party investigators conducted all of the interviews over a two-day period and quickly completed their investigation.