Organizations across the public and private sectors face the urgent challenge of preventing targeted violence before it occurs. PLG’s Threat Assessment & Management Services practice brings together rare legal expertise at the intersection of behavioral threat assessment, governance, compliance, and multidisciplinary prevention strategies.
We counsel practitioners, government agencies, community-based teams, educational institutions, nonprofits, and corporations on the legal frameworks that guide behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) and other violence prevention activities. From establishing new teams, to addressing day-to-day operational issues, we provide clarity on the legal standards that ensure programs are both effective and compliant. We also have the capacity to advise individual practitioners working in targeted violence prevention (mental health providers, educators, and others), and work with nongovernmental organizations active in the targeted violence prevention space.
How We Help
- Team Formation & Governance – Advising on the creation of threat assessment and management teams, including interagency agreements (e.g., MOUs), statutory authority and mandates, team structure and composition, and policy and procedure adoption.
- Operational Guidance – Addressing legal issues that arise in the assessment and management of cases, including triage processes, information privacy (e.g., HIPAA, FERPA, and related state laws) and related waivers, duty to warn, law enforcement referral thresholds, document retention and production policies, open government/freedom of information laws, and liability considerations such as applicable standards of care.
- Training & Education – Delivering tailored workshops, policy reviews, and customized compliance training for practitioners across law enforcement, education, healthcare, and community-based organizations.
- Policy & Program Development – Helping clients design and implement prevention strategies that align with federal, state, and local mandates, including emerging requirements for domestic terrorism prevention.
- Investigations & Litigation Support – Drawing on deep litigation experience to advise teams and organizations facing scrutiny, investigations, or disputes arising from threat assessment activities.
Few private law firms in the country offer dedicated legal services in this area. Kelly Berkell, a recognized national leader in the field, has trained and advised practitioners across the United States, authored leading scholarship on terrorism prevention, and helped shape policy alongside federal, state, and local partners. When beneficial, the Threat Assessment and Management Services practice works in seamless collaboration with other practice areas at PLG, such as the Education and Employment & Labor practice groups, affording deep reservoirs of legal expertise. Our practice offers clients the legal grounding needed to navigate some of the most pressing public safety challenges of our time.