Let's Shape The Future Of Your Investments!
Natoque iaculis cursus augue urna commodo aptent morbi tortor porttitor quis ornare.
Internal Investigations
For organizations in Saratoga County and the Capital Region
Internal Investigation Attorneys Saratoga, NY
Misconduct surfaced inside your organization, and the board, the executives, and counsel are looking at each other. Investigate or wait, report or hold: every one of those choices is easier with someone who ran investigations for the government before guiding the ones that answer to it.
Who guides the review
- Before defense
- Federal prosecutor
- Taught
- Responding to law enforcement as corporate counsel, NYSBA
- Handled
- About 300 criminal matters
- Tried
- About 35 jury trials
01Find your situation
What kind of internal review are you facing?
Find your situation below. Each one goes straight to what it means and what to do next.
Not sure where yours fits? Bring the complaint.
Schedule a Consultation
02Who guides the review
He ran investigations before he guided them
Scott Iseman was a federal prosecutor before he opened Iseman PLLC in 2021. He knows how an investigation is built and what turns an internal matter into a criminal one, because that used to be his job. In 2020 he taught the New York State Bar Association program on responding to law enforcement contact as corporate counsel.
When an inquiry became a case
A full corruption indictment dismissed
The state Attorney General indicted a public official over disclosure filings. Scott worked the defense as part of the trial team, and the entire indictment was dismissed before trial, a result the New York Times called a surprising rebuke of the attorney general.
Federal prosecutorBefore the defense
~300Criminal matters handled
~35Jury trials to verdict
2021 to 2026Super Lawyers
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Scott appeared as part of that trial team, not as lead counsel. Client names are withheld.
03Four decisions, fast
An internal review forces four decisions at once
The complaint is the easy part. What comes next is a set of choices that harden the longer they wait.
1
Do we investigate this ourselves?
A real inquiry settles a matter and shows good faith. A rushed or one-sided one becomes evidence against you later. The question is whether you can run it credibly, or need outside counsel to be believed.
Get this wrong and your own file becomes the government’s exhibit.2
Who leads it, and is it protected?
A review run by a lawyer for legal advice can be privileged. One run by HR, or a lawyer doing business work, often is not. Who runs the interviews decides whether what they learn stays yours.
The privilege is built at the start or not at all.3
Do we report it to the government?
Coming forward before regulators arrive can earn real cooperation credit. It is also close to irreversible and hands over a roadmap, so it most needs someone who has sat on the other side.
Cooperation credit has deadlines you may not see.4
How do we treat the person who reported it?
The employee who raised the complaint has protection under New York law, and disciplining them can create a second case larger than the first. It is a legal question, not an HR one.
Retaliation is the mistake that outlives the original problem.04What stays yours
Whether the investigation stays protected is decided early
An internal review leaves a written record: notes, memos, a report. Whether the government can ever read it turns on how the review is set up, and by the time anyone asks, that is fixed.
Who holds it
The organization, not the people in it
When a lawyer interviews your staff for the organization, the privilege is the organization’s. Leadership decides whether to keep it or hand it over, and an interviewed employee cannot stop that.
How it breaks
Easier than most people think
The protection covers the conversation, not the facts, so witnesses can still be made to testify. And it may never attach if the review is run by non-lawyers, or a lawyer doing business work.
The warning that protects it
The Upjohn warning, given right
The interviewer should tell each employee they represent the organization, not the employee. Done right it keeps the privilege clean. Done sloppily it muddies whose privilege it is.
The employee’s side of that interview, whether they need their own lawyer and what happens to what they say, is on our government investigations page.
05The hardest call
Whether to come forward, and when
Some findings you resolve internally. Some you disclose before the government finds them. Telling the two apart is the whole decision.
Handle it inside
Fix it and document it
Where the conduct is contained, correctable, and unlikely to draw a regulator, a credible fix with a clear record is often the end of it. The record protects you if the question comes up later.
Come forward
Self-report for cooperation credit
Where exposure is real, disclosing first can earn real credit and change how a prosecutor treats the organization. It is close to irreversible, so it is the last decision to make and the first to get advice on.
Weighing whether to disclose? Talk it through before you file anything.
Schedule a Consultation or call (518) 633-152806Why it is handled early
What a mishandled review costs the organization
The misconduct is one problem. How the organization responds is often the bigger one.
The organization
A review that looks like a cover-up draws the regulator you were avoiding. Boards, insurers, and lenders read the response, not just the conduct.
The individuals
Executives and directors carry personal exposure, and a report can name them. Their interests and the organization’s stop being the same.
The privilege
Set up wrong, the whole file becomes discoverable, and the work done to fix the problem becomes the evidence against you.
07Quick answers
What organizations ask us at the start of a review
Most get asked in the first week, the right time to ask.
A complaint just landed against a senior person at our Saratoga Springs organization. Investigate it ourselves?
Sometimes, and credibility decides it. In-house is faster, but if the subject is senior, or the Saratoga County District Attorney or a state regulator may look later, a review you ran yourself can be dismissed as self-serving. That is when outside counsel earns its cost.
Who should lead the review so it stays privileged in New York?
A lawyer, running it for legal advice. A review led by HR, or a lawyer doing ordinary business work, often is not protected, which means the notes can be handed to a regulator or the Ballston Spa district attorney later. Set this at the start.
Our Saratoga County school district found a problem. Do we have to report it?
Public bodies carry duties a private company does not. The State Comptroller audits New York local governments and school districts and can refer what it finds to the district attorney. Whether you must disclose, and to whom, is a question to settle before you act.
Can we discipline the Saratoga County employee who filed the complaint?
Be very careful. New York’s whistleblower law protects an employee who reasonably believed they were reporting something unlawful, even if they turn out to be wrong, and even if they told only a supervisor. Discipline that looks like payback can create a bigger case than the first.
Do our Capital Region investigators need to give an Upjohn warning?
They should, at the start of every employee interview. It is the interviewer telling the employee they represent the organization, not them. Given right, it keeps the privilege the organization’s. Skipped or sloppy, it hands the other side an argument that the privilege is muddied.
The first week of a review decides the rest
Bring the complaint, the audit finding, or what your board just learned. We will help you decide whether to investigate, who leads it, and whether to come forward. The first conversation costs nothing.
Schedule a Consultation
Open in Google Maps ↗
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 (518) 633-1528 scott@scottisemanlaw.com Get directions
Visit us
Iseman PLLC 59 Franklin StreetSaratoga Springs, NY 12866 (518) 633-1528 scott@scottisemanlaw.com Get directions
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This page is general information and is not a prediction about any individual matter. Iseman PLLC, 59 Franklin Street, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, (518) 633-1528.