Workplace Violence Prevention for California Law Firms

 When William Shakespeare wrote, “The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers”, he was likely referring to their critical role as the guardians of society, since the phrase was uttered by someone intent on overthrowing the king.

 But, as most people working in the legal field can attest, threats to kill lawyers, and other legal professionals are far more common than thought. A study of violence and threats of violence against attorneys conducted in 28 states from 2006 to 2018 found that over 40% of those responding reported being physically attacked or threatened with violence. 

 And the source of those threats and violence came from clients and their families, opposing parties and their families, and tragically, from opposing counsel too (Type 2 invitee violence). In addition, a 2018 international law survey found that bullying in the workplace in law firms was rampant . And that 57% of workplace bullying incidents went unreported due to the belief that bullying was endemic to the workplace. (Type 3 co-worker violence).

 Family law attorneys, and those practicing criminal law reported the highest levels of violence and threats of violence, and not far behind them, were trial lawyers working on personal injury and civil rights cases.

In addition, law firms can be located in areas where they are exposed to community violence, especially in their parking areas (Type 1-criminal activity), and because many of the staff in law offices are female, there’s also a risk of domestic violence incidents bleeding over into the workplace (Type 4 employee family violence).

 In this piece, I discuss what law firms need to focus on when developing an effective workplace violence prevention plan and program as required under California’s new workplace violence prevention law.

 I learned first hand about the devastating effects of violence, how it occurs, and how it can be prevented, through 30 years of conducting civil and criminal litigations investigations into violent incidents on behalf of attorneys, and while conducting internal fact-finding investigations for employers regarding workplace violence, threats, and harassment.

 California’s new workplace violence prevention law goes into effect on July 1. It covers the vast majority of employers, employees, and workplaces. My free California workplace violence prevention checklist can help you get started on your prevention plan. Download it here. 

Assessing Safety Hazards

 Developing and implementing a violence prevention plan starts with determining the workplace violence safety hazards that are specific to your employees. These assessments should be made relative to the safety threats they face from the four source types of workplace violence.

 Each workplace violence source type brings its own unique safety threats and requires different approaches to identifying and remediating those specific safety threats. Here’s where to begin: 

•  Start by surveying, or interviewing, employees about their safety concerns, incidents they’ve experienced or witnessed, including near misses—situations that didn’t progress to a violent incident, but could have—and what changes they think will lessen the risk to those threats.
•  Assess the physical premises of the law firm, interior and exterior, parking areas, and walkways for lighting, ingress and egress, hiding places, the ability to trap staff inside a conference room, and other factors that can increase safety risks. This is especially critical since depositions are typically conducted in law firms, and parties may be unaccompanied within the office while using the bathroom.
•  Develop an approach to remediate the identified safety hazards created by the environment and the people within it. 

Strategies to Avoid Physical Harm from Workplace Violence 

 Once hazards are identified, you’ll need to assess any current education and training approaches you take to help employees avoid physical harm from workplace violence and how they relate to the safety hazards your employees face. And then determine the strategies you’ll need to implement in order to educate and train your employees on how to avoid physical harm from those workplace violence safety hazards. Some strategies to consider include: 

•  Communication approaches to convey the existence of safety threats.
•  Situational awareness and de-escalation training.
•  Office positioning layout and training when meeting 1 on 1 with clients or witnesses.
•  The buddy system.
•  Personal safety and self-defense skills.
•  Incident response team members.
•  Parking area safety. 

Workplace Violence Complaint and Investigation Systems

 Review your current workplace violence complaint and investigation process to ensure that it can address each of the four source types of workplace violence. Some questions to ask about your process include: 

•  Do your employees know exactly who violence complaints should be brought to?
•  Are complaints brought forward in writing with clear instructions?
•  Are there contingencies in the complaint and investigation process should the alleged incident involve a manager or other person of authority?
•  Is there a clearly defined and standardized investigation process?
•  Is the person responsible for investigations trained in conducting investigations?
•  Do you have a standardized approach to reporting on the investigation, its findings, and recommendations to ensure that decision makers are fully informed?

Workplace Violence Incident Log

 Do you maintain a workplace violence incident log where the relevant information regarding any incident that occurs is documented? If not, you’ll need to create one. Here’s some of the basic information you’ll want to include in the incident log: 

•  The circumstances surrounding the incident, including the time of the incident, the number of employees present, and identify the relationship of the source for the violence to the restaurant.
•  The factors that led to the incident.
•  Details regarding the incident itself.
•  Who was notified.
•  The response to the incident, and who was involved in that response.
•  The results of any investigation.
•  The resulting outcome of the investigation and response to the incident.
•  Do not include medical information, or information that identifies specific individuals to protect the privacy rights of those involved beyond.

Training and Implementation

 You’ll also need to develop a training program that trains employees in the workplace violence prevention plan, their responsibilities, and roles, as well as in safety approaches to help keep them safe.  Employee training should include: 

•  Recognizing workplace violence hazards specific to their jobs.
•  Effective procedures to respond to actual or potential workplace violence emergencies.
•  Effective means to alert employees about workplace violence emergencies.
•  Evacuation and sheltering plans.
•  How to obtain help from staff assigned to respond to workplace violence incidents.
•  How to seek assistance to prevent or respond to violence.
•  Strategies to avoid physical harm from violence. This training is critical for employee safety. Because it ensures employees are protected from harm even when other practices fail.

 And you’ll need to develop an implementation process to ensure that all of the different required actions are completed. Areas to implement include: 

•  Active employee involvement in the workplace violence prevention process.
•  Employee surveys and interviews to identify workplace violence safety hazards.
•  Workplace violence safety hazard inspections and corrections.
•  Complaint and investigation process.
•  Preventing retaliation and ensuring accountability throughout all processes.
•  Workplace violence incident log.

Have questions about your workplace violence prevention program, send me an email. We can discuss where you are at in developing your program and what approaches you can take to ensure you get an effective workplace violence prevention program up and running.