Partner
Dave Stallard is an experienced workplace investigator. He has served as the principal investigator in over 150 workplace investigations, involving workplace harassment, hostile work environments, discrimination, bullying, retaliation and other misconduct. His experience includes investigating complaints against elected officials, high-level executives, police officers, and others.
Dave conducts impartial investigations for public and private sector employers including technology startups, small and medium sized businesses, school districts, local governments, police and fire departments, state agencies and nonprofits. Prior to starting Stallard Workplace Investigations, Dave worked for three years at the Law Offices of Amy Oppenheimer, a leading Bay Area investigations firm. Dave also has strong technology experience, having worked alongside Engineering and Operations teams on contracts and projects at a Silicon Valley startup.
Dave received his Juris Doctor from UC Davis School of Law, and his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dave is a member of the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI) and is an AWI Certificate Holder (AWI-CH). Dave has also received a certificate from T9 Mastered to conduct Title IX investigations. He is a member of the California Bar Association.
Partner
For a decade Cara Panebianco has focused on workplace investigations and training. During this time, she has conducted hundreds of investigations, supervised hundreds more, and led hundreds of hours of training on workplace investigations. Her experience spans roles as in-house counsel, external counsel, and internal HR.
She has conducted investigations involving allegations against Executive Directors, CEOs, and others at the highest levels of employers ranging from VC-funded start-ups to non-profits to public agencies. Prior to co-founding Stallard Panebianco PC, Cara built and managed the internal conduct and ethics team within the legal department of a publicly-traded company with offices across the USA. Cara supervised all investigations conducted by the team, retained external counsel to conduct investigations, provided cross-functional education to those conducting HR-driven investigations at the company, and led company-wide communications and education related to the company’s code of ethics.
Cara is actively involved in the Association of Workplace Investigators (AWI), the preeminent organization for workplace investigators. Currently, she serves as co-chair of the AWI Training Institutes, the only externally accredited training for workplace investigators. She also serves as a member of the AWI Board of Directors.
Cara is a member of the California Bar. Cara received her Juris Doctor from Golden Gate University School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts from Texas A&M University. She began her legal career in employment law, representing plaintiffs in litigation and administrative proceedings. Then, she transitioned her career to advise employers on compliance, which led her to investigations.
Of Counsel
Kathleen Nolan, Esq., AWI-CH, CIPP/US
Kathleen is a California licensed attorney with robust legal and compliance expertise, now using that expertise to conduct impartial and thorough investigations for employers. She completed the AWI Training Institute and earned her AWI-CH. Investigation work appeals to her because the process allows parties the opportunity to be heard and draws on her strategic and analytical skills. Kathleen investigates complaints of alleged discrimination, harassment, retaliation, bullying, and other misconduct.
Kathleen is a Certified Information Privacy Practitioner (United States) from the International
Association of Privacy Professionals. Prior to focusing on investigations, she worked at publicly traded technology companies as a corporate, product, and advertising lawyer. Kathleen's career trajectory is unique, encompassing experience in both inside and outside sales, in addition to her legal experience. Her career path gives her an in-depth understanding of sales teams, marketing teams, and product teams.
Additionally, her professional and personal interests have led her to participate in hackathons. She was a finalist for the inaugural LLM x Law Hackathon put together by CodeX and The
Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. Kathleen continues to explore the intersection of law, privacy, and artificial intelligence. These interests mean she is well equipped for investigations involving technical teams.
She holds a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration with a minor in French Language and Literature from the University of San Diego. In her spare time, she enjoys travel and stand-up paddleboarding yoga.