The Organizational Ombudsman: Origins, Roles and Operations - A Legal Guide

An essential resource for ombudsmen, dispute resolution professionals, in-house counsel, corporate executives, university administrators, compliance officers, and human resources personnel, this book provides a history of the evolution of the role of an organizational ombudsman. It explains why such a function is important for organizations and the pressures on organizations from developments in criminal law, employment law, and corporate governance and regulation. The book provides:

• A detailed rationale for the creation of ombudsman offices, including a review of demographic data and workplace/societal changes in technology and globalization that have influenced how we work and interact in large organizations.
• Suggestions for structuring and documenting an ombudsman program and how to address issues that arise in litigation.
• A comprehensive presentation of various legal issues associated with organizational ombudsman programs, including collecting cases that deal with imputed notice and confidentiality.
• Topics of interest to ombudsmen and to those with whom they work, including discovery tools, arbitration and mediation, the federal sentencing guidelines, the Cleary Act, constitutional limitations on claims of privilege, and the European Union Data Privacy Directive.
• Numerous examples of how ombudsmen function in their organizations to illustrate how they are effective in addressing issues that people would not otherwise raise.

Chuck Howard is currently an Organizational Ombuds Consultant. His website is charleshowardllc.com. Previously, he was a Partner and General Counsel of Shipman & Goodwin LLP. From 1985-2000 he was Chair of the firm's Litigation Department. From September 2019 through February 2022 he was the Executive Director of the International Ombuds Association.

He is a former Chair of the Ombuds Committee of the Dispute Resolution Section and served on the Dispute Resolution Council and as Budget Office for the Section. He has extensive litigation experience in state and federal court in a wide range of matters, including over seventy-five appeals. His intellectual property litigation experience encompasses copyright, trademark, trade secret, covenant not to compete and patent litigation. His business and public sector litigation experience includes representation of business clients in many diverse matters, and representation of the State of Connecticut, quasi-public state agencies, and municipalities. For almost thirty years he represented ombuds clients at major corporations, universities and other organizations.

Chuck is the author of The Organizational Ombudsman: Origins, Roles and Operations-A Legal Guide, published by the ABA in 2010. More recently, he is the author of The Organizational Ombuds--A Practical Guide: How They Help People and Organizations, published by the ABA in January, 2022. While in private practice, he had a national practice representing organizational ombuds at universities, multinational corporations, national defense laboratories, and other organizations. Reviews of his books, which also are available for purchase, can be found on amazon.com or on the ABA Bookstore website. As an organizational ombuds consultant, he has continued to assist major corporations and other organizations create ombuds programs.

He has lectured and written extensively on ombuds and related topics. In January of 2002, he was appointed by the United States Sentencing Commission to serve as one of sixteen members to a national Advisory Group to review and recommend revisions to the federal organizational sentencing guidelines.

Chuck was an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. He was an Assistant Attorney General for Attorney General John C. Danforth of Missouri from 1975-1976.