Consent: Gathering the Essential Facts
Course DescriptionCampus sexual misconduct policies are grounded in consent. In this informative workshop, T9 faculty Liz DeChellis and Nora Rohman will explore this complicated landscape and dive into the challenges surrounding consent, including how to ask the necessary questions to ascertain:
- What did the parties communicate to each other?
- Was Complainant incapacitated due to drugs, alcohol, and/or sleep?
- Could Respondent have reasonably known Complainant was incapacitated?
- Was consent given for each escalation of sexual activity?
Presenters
Liz DeChellis is a Partner with Van Dermyden Makus. She is licensed to practice law in the State of California, and is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). Prior to joining Van Dermyden Makus, Liz was employed at UC Davis where she routinely provided policy and contract interpretation to management and staff, responded to grievances and complaints, acted as the University Advocate for administrative hearings, and negotiated contracts with labor unions. Additionally, she conducted investigations and fact-findings and served as a Hearing Officer in student discipline hearings. Prior to law school, Liz worked in Human Resources for various companies, providing advice and assistance with recruitment, hiring, termination, and performance management. Liz is also an experienced investigator in Title IX sexual misconduct claims. She has investigated cases involving underage Complainants, multiple Respondents, and allegations involving incapacitation and inability to consent. Liz understands best practices in the Title IX arena, and the challenges facing schools and parties when sexual violence allegations surface. Liz frequently serves as an Appeal Hearing Officer for Title IX cases. In this role, Liz reviews campus responses to Title IX allegations within the framework of the individual school’s appeal process. In her deliberations, she considers whether the administration’s response to claims of sexual misconduct were compliant with policies meant to provide a safe campus for students. Liz has overseen cases involving dating violence, drug abuse, sexual assault, and incapacitation. She has experience questioning parties using trauma-informed techniques, making admissibility and relevance decisions, and issuing well-reasoned, thorough decisions. Additionally, Liz has investigated matters at K-12 Districts, including allegations involving discrimination and compliance. Her investigations have included interviews of administration, classified staff, as well as paraeducators.
Nora Rohman is a senior investigator at Public Interest Investigations, Inc. in Los Angeles, where their caseload includes workplace and Title IX investigations involving LGBTQI+ individuals. Their investigations have focused on campus investigations involving sexual misconduct allegations; workplace investigations into complaints of harassment, discrimination, and/or retaliation; and mitigation investigations for death penalty matters, both at the trial and appellate levels. They are an Association of Workplace Investigators certificate holder (AWI-CH). Nora regularly shares their expertise on this topic by offering training and other presentations to campuses and professional organizations.
Audience
This training is valuable for anyone investigating sexual misconduct involving students or employees. This program looks closely at collecting the essential information needed for a consent analysis.
Length
2 Hours
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