Ethical Issues and Pitfalls for In-House Attorneys When Conducting Internal Investigations

Matthew T. Smith and Emilia McKee Vassallo, members of Ballard Spahr's White Collar Defense and Investigations Group, will speak at the Association of Corporate Counsel's 2025 Ethics & Compliance CLE Institute. They will be joined by fellow speaker Christina Hud, Senior Counsel, Global Investigations for the Legal Division of Pfizer, Inc.

The event description:

This CLE presentation will cover many of the common—but complex—ethical issues faced by in-house counsel when an internal investigation is required. The presentation will use a hypothetical scenario to explore issues including: (a) who should lead the internal investigation (compliance, HR, in-house counsel, external counsel, or someone else); (b) when internal investigation activities can be protected by the attorney-client privilege; (c) how employee interviews should be conducted; and (d) how the results of an internal investigation should be communicated, to both internal and external audiences. One goal is to stimulate participation and conversation among the attendees through polling questions posed during the presentation.