Overview
Pullman & Comley’s investigations practice provides clients ranging from large corporations to educational and religious institutions with diligent pursuit of facts in difficult situations, independent judgment in reporting, and sensitivity in dealing with all those involved in an inquiry. We provide independent investigations for matters requiring a public response, internal investigations to guide clients’ policy-making and compliance, and preparatory investigations for clients’ prosecution or defense of claims and charges.
Our investigations group consists of former judges and prosecutors, litigators with deep experience in fraud, regulatory, and corporate governance matters, and employment lawyers knowledgeable about a broad spectrum of employee misconduct issues. Together they can meet clients’ investigatory needs in any industry and any size or complexity of organization or problem.
Among the areas in which our firm has conducted investigations are:
- Corporate fraud and embezzlement
- Alleged police and municipal corruption
- Sexual abuse and the managerial responses to it in organizations
- Employment discrimination
- Title IX violations in both universities and schools.
Many of these matters have involved highly controversial and potentially damaging events that have drawn significant press attention.
The hallmarks of our approach are impartiality, discretion, and thoroughness. We have a deep and energetic team capable of promptly addressing large-scale inquiries, and accustomed to representing clients in the public eye. We can draw on related technical skills including cutting-edge information management techniques to handle document-intensive matters, one of the state’s foremost practices in the law of lawyering to advise clients on confidentiality matters, and extensive experience within the firm on Freedom of Information Act and public access questions.
We welcome, and are particularly proud of, referrals from other law firms seeking independent counsel for their clients in situations where the firms are unable to act themselves.
Experience
- Conducted a year-long inquiry into a Roman Catholic diocese’s managerial response to sexual abuse over a nearly seven-decade period, including evaluating the responses of several nationally prominent cardinals and archbishops
- Represented one of Connecticut’s largest municipalities in an internal investigation into claims of retaliatory employment practices against the city’s mayor and police command staff
- Investigated claims of fraud against shareholders by the officers and directors of a large specialty medical practice in connection with the acquisition of the practice by a national healthcare company
- On behalf of a board of education, investigated alleged improprieties in student standardized test scoring
- Represented one of Connecticut’s largest municipalities in an investigation into the alleged failure of the city’s board of education, teachers, and administrators to report alleged student sexual abuse and other misconduct
- Investigated high-profile racial and religious discrimination claims against a road construction firm
- Conducted numerous investigations of Title IX complaints for universities and schools in connection with student and employee disciplinary proceedings
- Frequently provide training to client personnel and in-house lawyers on investigative techniques and related ethical issues
