Background Checks

We understand that hiring quality talent is essential to your business. We partner with you to ensure your hiring process aligns with your unique strategic goals and desired candidate experience, while mitigating legal risks.

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Our holistic approach, driven by decades of experience, helps employers of all kinds create and implement robust hiring procedures that comply with laws and stay ahead of legal risks and trends.

There is no one template for choosing the people who drive your business.

Hiring and retaining the right talent is critical to your business’s success, but it can also come with significant legal risks. Our legal team serves as a strategic ally from the moment you make your first hiring decision. We help you navigate the complexities of pre-hire and ongoing background screening, from developing forms and processes that work for you and your talent technology, to serving as a sounding board for difficult hiring and screening decisions, and helping you defend your processes and decisions in court or before government agencies when challenged.

We understand no two businesses’ processes and goals are the same. Our focus is to learn about your specific goals and challenges to help you build a legally compliant and efficient hiring and screening approach that drives business success.

Experience and Impact

Our breadth of knowledge sets us apart.

We have decades of experience partnering directly with employment background screening companies to ensure their policies and procedures align with both the law and employers’ needs. Our attorneys are regular speakers at background screening industry events and published authors of industry journal articles. We leverage our holistic knowledge of the industry and common themes, concerns and trends to anticipate and minimize disconnects and misunderstanding between employers, their hiring technology providers and background screening providers, and lead them toward shared success.

We are there for you at every stage, providing the tools needed to stay ahead of the curve. If you're looking to try something new, chances are we've already thought it through.

Our deep involvement with decision makers in every aspect of the hiring and screening ecosystem means we do not start at square one. Our extensive knowledge of federal, state and local employment laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and state consumer reporting laws, “ban the box” and “fair chance” laws, and clean slate initiatives, allows us to meet you where you are to deliver powerful industry benchmarking insights, forecasts of statutory and regulatory trends, and practical risk assessment grounded in real-life litigation experience. We work with you to customize your legal strategies to meet your unique business drivers and challenges. By staying ahead of emerging legal trends, we help you anticipate and mitigate risks before they escalate into legal claims.

Employment screening laws vary from state to state and country to country, making multijurisdictional compliance especially complex.

Whether it’s using social media and the internet to learn about an applicant or seeking a background check report, we guide you in establishing legally compliant hiring policies and procedures that ensure you stay compliant with critical federal laws such as the FCRA, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and various state and local fair-chance, ban-the-box, and wage-history laws and regulations. In addition, we partner with Littler’s global network to advise multinational employers on the lawful use of background checks outside the United States and around the world.

Create New Hiring and Screening Programs

We analyze and help establish the recommended infrastructure for multistate employment-related screening programs.
Audit and Improve Existing Programs

Whether you are an employer or employment screening company, we ensure your screening procedures are legally sound to protect your business through legal compliance and well-informed hiring decisions.
Train Stakeholders

We help you train your stakeholders on hiring and screening procedures that work best for those charged with implementation and decision-making.
Provide In-Depth Advice and Counsel

We answer daily calls from clients on the thorniest hiring and screening situations you experience.
Review Subscriber Agreements

We review end-user or subscriber agreements for screening services with your goals and business needs in mind as well as ensure legal compliance.
Evaluate Employment Documentation

We evaluate legally required documentation to help ensure compliance and accuracy, including authorization and disclosure forms, individualized assessments, and “adverse action” process communications.
Defend Your Programs and Decisions

Where necessary, we defend you in litigation and regulatory actions based on these programs and decisions, including in individual, representative and class action matters.

100+

Nationwide employer or Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) background check class actions handled.
50%

Of the settlements reached in employer or CRA background check class actions provided no recovery for the class.
70+

Publications authored by co-chairs in last 5 years.

Employment Documentation

From the application to the offer letter and beyond, our team helps ensure that your employment documentation is customized to your specific needs, while complying with evolving federal, state and local laws.
Compliance Audits

Our thorough audits provide a detailed assessment of your hiring procedures, background screening processes and employment practices, offering actionable recommendations to address vulnerabilities.
HR Training and Policy Development

Our in-depth training programs help you stay compliant while fostering a legally sound work environment, covering key areas like FCRA compliance, interviewing recommendations, adverse action notices and avoiding disparate impact claims.
Systemic Investigations

We successfully represent employers in complex regulatory investigations, including those related to criminal background checks and compliance with anti-discrimination laws, to help avoid or minimize costly penalties or enforcement actions.
Class Action Defense

Our team has a proven track record of successfully defending employers and employment screening companies in costly and disruptive nationwide background check class actions, particularly those arising under the FCRA and state equivalents.
Individual Hiring Decisions

From C-Suite executive to hourly team member screening and hiring, we help you navigate your most difficult and unique individual hiring and employment decisions, offering you a practical roadmap to achieve positive outcomes.