Ellen J. Messing, NELA Annual Conference Presentation
Attorney Ellen Messing was honored to have the opportunity to present on a panel at the 2020 National Employment Lawyers Association 2020 Annual Conference in July of this year, together with U.S. District Christopher Cooper. Her presentation The Ethics of Interviewing Defendant’s Employees & Candor to the Court provides insight into the ways in which lawyers representing employees can legally and ethically obtain important evidence for their clients’ cases from interviews of both former and current employees of Defendants.
When representing employees in cases against their employer, employees often rely on conversations, interactions and shared experiences with co-workers to support their cases. In addition, a co-worker may have directly witnessed a particular behavior or incident and are essential to proving a case. Unfortunately, employers and their lawyers seek to wield ethics and evidentiary rules in an effort to keep this evidence out of court. Drawing on years of experience and several publications she has written dealing with these issues, on the panel Attorney Messing helped provide other lawyers a road map to maximize their chances of ethically obtaining and using this important form of evidence in cases representing employees. .
Attorney Messing’s presentation is attached here.