For Counsel · Empire Investigation · Pittsburgh, PA
Law Firms & Litigation-Sensitive Work
Law firms retain investigators for their clients. They also, occasionally, need one for themselves.
Empire works both ways: as an investigative resource under counsel direction on client matters, and, separately and confidentially, on the firm's own environment when a matter is sensitive enough that the conference room itself is part of the exposure.
Speak Directly with an InvestigatorWhat We Handle
Work firms retain us for
- Counsel-directed investigation
- Empire is retained by the firm, takes direction from the firm, and reports to the firm. Where the engagement is structured to fall within the attorney work-product doctrine, the scope and reporting are set up that way at the outset rather than reconstructed afterward.
- Evidence preservation and chain of custody
- Collection is documented from the moment of contact: what was taken, by whom, when, and every hand it passed through. Where a device or record cannot be collected lawfully, we say so before it is touched rather than after.
- Witness location and interviews
- Locating witnesses who have moved, gone quiet, or actively avoided service, and conducting recorded or documented interviews that distinguish what a witness observed from what a witness concluded.
- Asset and financial intelligence
- Lawful public-records and financial-indicator work for judgment enforcement, matrimonial matters, fraud claims and estate disputes, source-cited so opposing counsel can be shown where each finding came from.
- Pre-litigation fact development
- Facts developed before filing shape the case. Facts developed after it shape the damage. Early fact work also tells a firm when a matter is weaker than the client believes, which is worth knowing before a complaint is drafted.
- Technical inspection of firm environments
- Conference rooms, war rooms and executive offices inspected before a sensitive proceeding, mediation or settlement conference. This is the part firms rarely think to ask for until a matter is large enough that they should have.
Reference · Share Freely
Evidence preservation: the first hour
Most evidence in a corporate or domestic matter is not destroyed deliberately. It is degraded by someone competent trying to be helpful. This is the guidance we give counsel and clients before we arrive, and it is written to be forwarded.
Do not power on, log into, or examine the device
Booting a phone or laptop writes to it. So does opening a file to check what it is. A well-intentioned look by a paralegal is the most common way metadata is altered before an examiner ever receives the item.
Leave a discovered device exactly where it is
If a recording or tracking device has been found, its position, orientation and installation are part of the evidence. Photograph it in place. Removing it destroys the part of the record that establishes intent and access.
Write down who already knows
The list of people aware of the discovery determines what can still be done quietly. It is easier to record accurately in the first hour than to reconstruct in a deposition.
Issue the litigation hold before anything moves
Devices, accounts, logs, badge records, camera footage and messaging exports. Retention windows on building access and video systems are frequently days, not months, and they expire while a hold is being drafted.
Record the chain from the first hand
Who found it, when, where, who has held it since, and where it is stored. A chain that begins when the investigator arrives has a gap in it, and opposing counsel will find the gap.
Call before collecting anything ambiguous
Employer-owned versus personal devices, shared accounts, recordings made in Pennsylvania, and material belonging to third parties all carry different rules. A five-minute call is cheaper than a suppression motion.
General guidance, not legal advice, and not a substitute for your own judgment on a specific matter. Pennsylvania's wiretapping statute in particular treats recordings differently from most states, and it is worth a call before anything is collected.
Structure
How reporting and privilege are handled
When a firm retains Empire directly, the engagement letter names the firm as the client, the scope is agreed in writing before any fieldwork, and findings are delivered to the attorneys named in that scope. Nothing goes to the underlying client unless counsel directs it.
Whether work product is protected in a given matter is a question for the court, not for the investigator, and we will not tell you it is guaranteed. What we control is the structure: retained by counsel, scoped in writing, reported to counsel, with methodology documented so the work does not fail on how it was gathered.
Where a firm engages us on its own environment rather than a client matter, that engagement is kept separate from every client file, and findings go to the retaining partner alone.
Confidential Inquiry
Speak Directly with an Investigator
Retained by counsel, scoped in writing, reported to the attorneys you name. If a deadline or a retention window is driving the matter, say so on the first call.
Questions
Questions from Counsel
Do you work under attorney direction or independently?
Both, and the distinction is set at intake. When a firm retains us, we take direction from the firm and report to the firm. When a client retains us directly and counsel is later engaged, we can transition the engagement, though the earlier work does not retroactively acquire a protection it did not have. If privilege matters to a matter, retain the investigator through counsel from the beginning.
Is your work product privileged?
That depends on how the engagement is structured and on the court, and it is not something an investigator can promise. What we can do is structure the engagement the way firms ask us to: retained by counsel, scoped in writing, reporting to counsel alone. We do not assert that findings are automatically protected, because they are not.
Can you testify to your findings?
Yes. Reports are written on the assumption that the investigator may have to sit behind them, which is why methodology is documented, chain of custody is maintained where evidence is collected, and established fact is kept separate from professional assessment.
How quickly can you deploy on an active matter?
Intake can happen the same day. Where a filing deadline, a discovered device, a departure or an expiring retention window is driving the timeline, say so on the first call so the engagement is scoped around the deadline rather than into it.
Do you sweep our own conference rooms?
Yes, and it is a separate, confidential engagement from any client matter. Firms most often ask before a high-value mediation, a settlement conference, or a matter where the opposing party has both motive and means. The findings go to the partner who retained us and to no one else in the firm unless instructed.