Workplace Guidance That Builds Trust
Workplace investigation programs carry enormous weight—for your employees, your organization’s integrity, and your exposure to legal and reputational risk. When they work well, they build trust. When they don’t, the costs are real.
Clear-Eyed Consulting helps organizations build, strengthen, and evaluate workplace investigation programs that deliver objective outcomes, credible reports, and actionable insight.
Why It Matters
A workplace investigation is rarely just about a single complaint.
The effectiveness of an investigation program influences employee trust, leadership accountability, organizational culture, and an organization’s ability to identify and address risk. Strong programs create confidence. Weak programs create uncertainty, inconsistency, and exposure.
Clear-Eyed Consulting was founded to help organizations strengthen the impact and efficiency of their workplace investigation programs.
Whether assessing an existing function, developing investigator capabilities, or designing a program from the ground up, Clear-Eyed Consulting helps organizations establish investigative practices that are objective, efficient, and trusted. The firm can also take on direct investigations of complex or sensitive matters.
Drawing on decades of leadership experience across both public and private sectors, Clear-Eyed Consulting helps clients create clear investigative frameworks, strengthen judgment and decision-making, improve reporting quality, and extract meaningful organizational insight from every investigation.
We Help You Achieve
Clear Frameworks
Consistent investigative structures that reflect organizational values and build trust.
Stronger Judgment
Skill building that improves confidence, decision-making, and investigative rigor.
Efficient Investigations
Consistent investigative structures that reflect organizational values and build trust.
Smart Boundaries
Consistent investigative structures that reflect organizational values and build trust.
Actionable Insight
Better use of investigation findings to drive meaningful organizational improvement.
How We Can Help
Every organization is different. Some need an experienced outside perspective or targeted training, while others may need to build an investigative program from the ground up.
Our work is designed to strengthen investigative effectiveness while improving consistency, efficiency, and trust.
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Effective investigations depend on sound judgment, thoughtful preparation, and consistent execution. Clear-Eyed Consulting provides practical, experience-based training for in-house investigation teams.
Foundations and philosophy of effective workplace investigations
Scoping investigations for maximum impact and efficiency
Precise, respectful, and culturally aware interviewing
Writing clear, objective, and defensible reports
Recognizing and mitigating cognitive biases
Training is tailored to experience level, subject matter, or to cross-functional teams that share investigative responsibilities.
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Even well-established investigation programs benefit from periodic evaluation.
Clear-Eyed Consulting conducts comprehensive assessments designed to identify strengths, uncover gaps, and improve overall program performance.
End-to-end program assessments
Review and auditing of completed investigations
Evaluation of policies, workflows, and governance structures
Opportunities to reduce investigation timelines without sacrificing rigor
Coaching and guidance for investigation leaders
Periodic review helps ensure investigation programs remain credible, compliant, efficient, and trusted, internally and externally.
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Clear-Eyed Consulting helps organizations design investigative and remediation programs that support consistency, accountability, and long-term effectiveness.
Investigative framework design
Intake and triage structures
Case management processes
Reporting standards
Governance and accountability models
Remediation planning and implementation
The result is a program designed to produce reliable outcomes, strengthen organizational trust, and create lasting value.
Selected Experience
Representative examples of the matters, programs, and initiatives that have shaped our perspective.
Global Investigation Leadership
Led the investigation and resolution of multi-year, multi-country FCPA investigations overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission.
Whistleblower &
Anti-Retaliation Policy
Developed whistleblower and anti-retaliation policies.
Hotline & Complaint Frameworks
Designed frameworks for the triage and classification of hotline complaints.
Compliance Culture Review
Evaluated compliance culture and leadership accountability within large organizations.
Employee Experience Evaluation
Designed employee experience surveys focused on workplace investigations.
Complex Employment Matters
Argued employment matters before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of King County government.
Investigation Training
Trained investigation teams in technology and manufacturing sectors on investigative scoping, structure, and execution.
Sensitive Internal Matters
Investigated embezzlement, insider trading, and theft of intellectual property matters through referral for prosecution.
Leadership
Sam Pailca
Founder & Principal
Sam Pailca founded Clear-Eyed Consulting after more than three decades leading high-volume, high-visibility, and high-stakes investigation programs across public and private sectors.
At Microsoft, Sam served as Director of the Office of Legal Compliance, where she led the company’s global business conduct investigation and remediation program. Her work spanned dozens of countries, diverse cultures, and sensitive matters involving employee conduct, leadership accountability, and organizational risk.
Prior to Microsoft, she was appointed as the first Director of the City of Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, a highly visible role responsible for overseeing internal investigations within the Seattle Police Department, strengthening professional standards, and building trust with community stakeholders.
Earlier in her career, Sam led the Labor and Employment Division of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, defending and advising three branches of county government in employment, labor, and class action litigation.
Throughout her career, Sam has been recognized for her clear-eyed judgment, pragmatic problem solving, and ability to build durable programs that extract valuable insight from every investigation.
Sam serves as a mediator with Washington Arbitration and Mediation Services.
Are you Ready to see clearly?Every engagement is different. The objective remains the same: helping organizations make better decisions through stronger investigations, clearer reporting, and greater organizational insight.
See Clearly
Whether you're building a workplace investigation program, evaluating an existing function, or navigating a particularly sensitive matter, Clear-Eyed Consulting brings experienced, objective guidance grounded in decades of leadership and investigative expertise.
Every organization faces unique challenges. We'd welcome the opportunity to learn about yours, discuss your goals, and explore how we can help strengthen your investigative capabilities with clarity, consistency, and confidence.
Sam Pailca
Founder & Principal
E: sampailca@hotmail.com
P: (206) 498-9016