Workshop 1: Building Legal Defensibility Into Your HR Processes

After your HR processes have been challenged legally it is a bit late to begin thinking about how best to defend them. Ideally, these considerations are part of the design, development, and validation process from the beginning. This workshop will discuss the learnings from previous litigation about the aspects of HR processes most likely to be challenged. It will also focus on those practices in design, development, and validation that enhance the legal and professional defensibility of the challenged HR processes. In addition, we will discuss the current legal environment for evaluating HR processes and discuss recent court decisions and activity of enforcement agencies (such as EEOC and OFCCP).

This workshop will draw on the experience of the participants as well as the presenters to foster a rich dialogue about how I-O practitioners can be proactive in developing legally defensible processes, which meet the business needs of their clients. We will discuss specific recommendations for selection, performance management, compensation and succession planning processes, as well as the types of monitoring and ongoing evaluation needed to implement effectively and maintain the validity of the process over time. This workshop is designed for practitioners and researchers interested in better understanding what can be done to build legal defensibility into HR processes.

This workshop is designed to help participants:

• Understand the current legal and regulatory context in which HR processes are assessed for their legal defensibility
• Know the aspects of HR processes that are typically at issue in litigation
• Use practices in the design, development, and validation of HR processes that enhance their legal defensibility
• Describe how implementation and ongoing monitoring of the HR process contributes to its legal defensibility
• Recognize the legal, professional, and ethical expectations of the industrial psychologist as an expert in employment discrimination litigation
• Understand the role of the industrial psychologist as an internal or external consultant on employment discrimination issues outside the context of litigation

R. Lawrence Ashe Jr., Esq. has tried more employment class actions to judgment than any other management attorney in the country. His past honors and offices include the Anti-Defamation League’s first Judge Elbert Tuttle Distinguished Jurisprudence Award in 1998, induction as a Fellow into both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, chair of the EEO Law Committee of the Defense Research Institute, founding director of the successor American Employment Law Council, management chair of the ABA Test & Validation Subcommittee, and chair of the Jury Trial Subcommittee of the ABA Litigation Section. Lawrence is the Northern District of Georgia’s representative on the Lawyer Conduct and Discipline Committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (2001–2006). He is a Master, Bleckley Inn of Court, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia (1990–) and a member in several professional and civic organizations, including Council Member of the Harvard Law School Association (1994–98, 1999–) and its Southeastern Regional Representative (1999–), and the Leadership Giving Executive Committee of the United Way of Greater Atlanta. Lawrence graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University (1962). He then served on active duty in the U.S. Navy on a destroyer (1962–1964) and received an honorable discharge as a Lieutenant, USNR. He went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard Law School (1967). Lawrence is admitted to practice in Georgia and the District of Columbia, as well as numerous federal courts around the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a founding partner and the chair of the Atlanta law firm of Ashe, Rafuse & Hill, notably the most diverse law firm in Georgia.

Kathleen Kappy Lundquist is cofounder and president of Applied Psychological Techniques, Inc. (APT). Kathleen is a nationally recognized expert in industrial psychology who has consulted with a broad range of Fortune® 100 employers on the design and implementation of HR processes. An expert in employment discrimination, she has consulted with both plaintiffs’ and defendants’ counsel and has testified as an expert witness in numerous cases. She is currently one of two court-appointed joint experts assisting the Coca-Cola Task Force. Kathleen has served on the Technical Advisory Committee on Assessment for the National Skills Standards Board and has served as chair of its Endorsement Review Panel. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Fordham University where she received her PhD in psychology with a specialization in psychometrics. Kathleen is formerly a research associate for the Committee on Ability Testing with the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow in psychometrics with the Psychological Corporation, and a summer research Fellow with the Educational Testing Service. She is a recipient of the National Association of Women Business Owners-CT Woman Business Owner of the Year Award as well as a member of the board of directors of The Volunteer Center of Southwestern Fairfield County.

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