She/Her
Jennifer Wootton is a lawyer, workplace investigator and trainer/instructor/speaker. She has more than 30 years of experience in the workplace human rights law field in Canada. Jennifer’s law practice focuses on the proactive and compassionate resolution of internal workplace complaints through investigations, assessments, training and policy development. Jennifer is a pioneer in the field of workplace harassment investigations in Canada and has investigated thousands of workplace harassment, bullying and violence allegations as an external investigator since 2000. She is regularly retained by public, private and not-for-profit employers to conduct workplace investigations and assessments of every level of complexity. She has extensive experience in both unionized and non-unionized workplaces, and employers of all sizes also call on her to advise on their internally conducted investigations.
Jennifer’s approach is always grounded in her strong knowledge of the law, coupled with a true dedication to the principles of fairness, neutrality, respect and transparency. Her investigation experience includes parties of all levels of seniority including executives, multiple party investigations with multiple cross-complaints, investigations involving minors, significant credibility issues, parties who are hostile and uncooperative, parties requiring accommodation, anonymous complaints and parties exhibiting and expressing serious signs of mental stress. In addition to conducting investigations using traditional face-to-face methods, Jennifer has extensive experience conducting investigations from a distance using video and telephone interviewing.
Jennifer’s 22 years of workplace investigation experience includes investigating workplace harassment and violence, discrimination and accommodation, bullying/psychological harassment, and workplace misconduct. Her harassment investigation experience includes harassment because of human rights grounds including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, race, ethnic origin, place of origin, disability, creed/religion and family status, including the intersectionality of grounds.
Jennifer received her Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University in 1989 and was awarded the Industrial Relations Prize as the student achieving the highest standing in IR. She earned her law degree from Western University in 1992 and was called to the Ontario bar in 1994. She practiced with Hicks Morley LLP, a large employment and labour law firm in Toronto for several years before embarking on her own practice specializing in workplace investigations. She is allied with other established investigation colleagues under the Workplace Resolutions banner.
In 2019, Jennifer co-launched Optimal Resolution™ Method, a comprehensive online program that teaches managers and human resources professionals how to effectively and respectfully identify, manage, investigate and resolve workplace harassment complaints internally across all Canadian jurisdictions. Jennifer has co-developed a Specialized Certificate in Managing, Investigating and Resolving Workplace Harassment Complaints program for the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and is the instructor for the 12-week Conducting Workplace Harassment Investigations course. Jennifer has also been a program speaker in Osgoode’s Advanced Certificate in Workplace Investigations where she taught about writing effective investigation reports.
