Scott Steinberg · Consultant, Analyst and Business Strategist
Workplace disputes increasingly involve systems rather than only people: monitoring tools, algorithmic scheduling, automated screening and the records those systems keep. A consultant to 3000+ organizations who has spent years on workplace and workforce change, Scott Steinberg addresses all manner of HR topics.
Expert reports, declarations, deposition and trial testimony on employment, wrongful termination, workforce technology, remote and hybrid work policy and practice, workplace monitoring, automated screening tools, contractor and gig classification practice, HR systems evidence and more.
Our experts cover myriad areas such as employment law compliance, HR professional standards of care, and the adequacy of workplace investigations. Reach out if you have custom queries.
Organizations deploy HR platforms, productivity tools and workflow systems that reshape how work is assigned, measured and recorded, frequently without anyone assessing the consequences.
Testimony addresses what a system was configured to do, what it captured, and how deployment compared to practice at comparable organizations.
Distributed work arrangements raise questions about availability expectations, equipment and cost allocation, communication norms and how presence was actually measured.
Testimony addresses how comparable organizations structured these arrangements during the relevant period, since convention moved substantially year to year.
Monitoring software captures keystrokes, screenshots, application use, location and communications at a granularity most employees do not anticipate.
Testimony addresses what a specific deployment collected, what employees were told, and how the configuration compared to sector practice at the time.
Tools that rank applicants, score assessments or filter candidates operate on criteria the deploying organization frequently cannot fully articulate.
Testimony addresses what validation and monitoring practice the market expected of such tools and what documentation shows was actually done.
Systems that allocate shifts, routes or tasks determine earnings and conditions for large workforces, often with limited transparency to the people affected.
Testimony addresses how such systems operated, what inputs drove allocation, and what workers could observe about the basis for assignments.
Classification disputes involve factual questions about how work was actually directed, measured and controlled through the platforms and systems involved.
Testimony addresses the operational reality the systems record, supplying facts rather than legal conclusions about classification status.
Workforce platforms retain performance records, communications, access logs and change histories at a granularity that frequently surprises both sides.
Testimony addresses what those systems support, what they omit, and where an inference exceeds what the records will bear.
Collaboration and messaging platforms hold much of the modern evidentiary record, with retention configuration determining what survives.
Testimony addresses platform configuration, what administrators could access, and how retention settings shaped the available record.
Workforce systems generate detailed records that are rarely preserved as evidence until someone asks, so scoping for them early materially changes what a case can show. Any party may instruct.
Written opinions on employment, HR, wrongful terminationa, workforce technology, AI monitoring and more.
Testimony on sample areas like human resources, workplace policy, investigations and other topics.
Responsive analysis of inferences drawn from monitoring data and screening tool assertions.
Non-testifying review of workforce system configuration and records, plus discovery scoping.
Scott Steinberg is an analyst, consultant and business trends expert with over 25 years of experience providing management and strategic consulting services to more than 3,000 businesses and brands ranging from startups to government agencies and Fortune 500 firms.
He has testified in sample areas including intellectual property — copyrights, trademarks and patents — patent infringement, marketing, branding, video games, mobile applications, consumer product development, and the growth and monetization of online distribution platforms.
He is the author of over 30 books and has published more than five thousand articles addressing areas including but not limited to marketing, technology, leadership, innovation, advertising, digital transformation, data privacy and social networks. He appears regularly on ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC, and has led seminars and training programs for organizations including Wells Fargo, the PGA Tour, Century 21, Ford, Dell and Procter & Gamble.
His consulting work has been broadly recognized. He has served as a thought leader for the American Bar Association and Corporate Counsel magazine, and has received honors from the International Association for Scholastic Excellence, Fortune, and the 21st Century Icon Awards, among others.
Sample areas like workforce trends, technology, policy and practice: monitoring tools, automated screening, algorithmic scheduling, remote work arrangements and what HR systems records establish. Also employment law compliance, HR professional standards of care or investigation adequacy.
A great deal about activity and considerably less about intent or performance. These tools capture keystrokes, application use, screenshots and location with precision, but translating that into conclusions about productivity or conduct is where most overreach occurs. Testimony is explicit about that boundary.
Through questions about what the tool was validated against, what criteria actually drove outcomes, whether results were monitored for unintended patterns, and what the vendor represented at procurement. Those are technology and practice questions rather than legal ones.
Often HR platform data and change histories, monitoring tool configuration and output, screening tool documentation and vendor materials, scheduling system logs, and communication platform archives with their retention settings. Most of it is not preserved as evidence until someone asks.
Initial conversations about scope, timing and conflicts are without charge. Helpful detail includes the systems or practices at issue, the workforce population and the period involved, plus any expert disclosure deadline already set.
A conflicts check is run before any substantive discussion. An initial note listing the party names and a one-line description of the dispute is enough to start; please hold privileged or confidential material until the check clears.