CHICAGO — Embattled Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch’s office has retained a Chicago-based employment law firm to conduct an evaluation of the workplace culture of the chamber’s Democratic majority “and provide actionable recommendations for improvement,” according to an email sent to Democratic House lawmakers and staffers, obtained by the Tribune.

The review comes as Welch prepares to give up the speaker’s gavel after six years amid criticism of his office’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former Democratic state representative and other concerns about his leadership. Welch, a Hillside Democrat, has said he will continue serving as a state representative after a new speaker is chosen.

The Prinz Law Firm entered into a six-month, $450,000 contract with the General Assembly on Sept. 21, state records show, and has been tasked with reviewing internal House policies, administering confidential surveys, conducting interviews with lawmakers and legislative staffers, and compiling a detailed report of findings and recommendations.

“This institutional assessment is intended to be as independent as possible. Therefore, the Office of the Speaker will not be directing it or otherwise managing it,” according to the email from Welch’s office sent in recent days to House Democrats and staffers. “We believe a strong, inclusive, and respectful workplace culture is essential for everyone’s success and long-term growth. And we understand that is an ongoing process that needs to be regularly evaluated and updated.”

The law firm was founded by employment lawyer Kristen Prinz, whose business-side practice includes workplace trainings, investigations and audits, according to her firm’s website.

Neither Prinz nor her firm contributed to campaign funds controlled by Welch, state campaign finance records show. In recent years, Prinz and her firm have altogether given about $5,700 to Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia, a Democrat, former Northwest Side aldermanic candidate Megan Mathias and a few other political candidates.

“Our office regularly helps employers obtain feedback from staff and implement policy and process updates that foster trust, engagement and productivity in workplaces,” Prinz said in a statement. “We are grateful to be a part of this effort towards making work better for the people who serve our state.”

A spokesperson for Welch would only confirm that his office “retained the Prinz Law Firm in September to assess culture within the office and make recommendations for improvements” and that “their process is ongoing.”

A spokesperson for House Republican leader Tony McCombie of Savanna said her office was aware that House Democrats had retained the law firm and that the majority party invited Republicans to participate in its sexual harassment prevention training, even though the House GOP has its own such training.

“The decision to hire outside counsel to investigate operations in the Illinois House under Speaker Welch is long overdue,” the McCombie spokesperson said. “Adopting comprehensive ethics reform, like strengthening the Legislative Inspector General, must be the next step to truly turning over a new leaf in the Illinois House.”

Welch announced earlier this month that he would not seek a fourth two-year term as speaker, following criticism from other House Democrats for his leadership style and his handling of sexual harassment allegations made against former state Rep. Harry Benton of Plainfield, who resigned in early July and withdrew his name from the Nov. 3 ballot. Welch’s decision came a day after 26 House Democrats, including four members of his leadership team, signed a statement calling for a new speaker.

A Tribune investigation in July first revealed Welch knew of Benton’s reported sexual harassment of a former staffer in his district office three years ago but did not discipline him at the time. The speaker’s political operation later contributed $1.4 million to Benton’s 2024 reelection campaign. Two weeks after the Tribune investigation was published, a legislative inspector general’s report found Benton engaged in a “pattern and practice” of sexual harassment toward his ex-staffer and two other women. Benton has denied wrongdoing.

But the Tribune investigation also disclosed that Welch personally knew the ex-Benton staffer from her previous roles in state government, including as an intern in the speaker’s office, and used “heart-eye” emojis to react to images of her on Instagram. His reactions to her pictures on social media made the woman “uncomfortable,” she told the Tribune. Welch has since publicly apologized for his actions.

In the aftermath, Welch’s office in August announced the formation of a working group, made up of only Democratic House lawmakers, to address workplace culture issues, including exploring ways to protect legislative employees from harassment. But the office’s engagement with the Prinz Law Firm is a separate effort, according to sources familiar with the situation, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal caucus matters.

“For the past few months, our office has been working on an initiative to further our commitment to consistently improving our institution’s workplace culture. The approach is three-fold: (1) identifying internal Human Resources improvements; (2) creating an independent member-driven working group to provide recommendations; and (3) engaging an outside independent expert to review current practices and make recommendations,” the email obtained by the Tribune stated. “In September, the Speaker’s Office engaged an independent law firm, The Prinz Law Firm, to assess our current work environment and provide actionable recommendations for improvement.”

The email said Democratic House members and staffers would receive the firm’s request for responses to a confidential survey and some would later be asked to schedule in-person or virtual interviews with someone from the firm. The firm would determine who it would interview by using a “representative sampling” and its “assessment of policies, procedures, and survey responses,” the email said.

Welch’s office said in the email that participation in the evaluation would be voluntary and the office would not know who had been chosen to participate. The email also said the firm’s final report would be released publicly, along with proposed steps to implement recommended changes.

“The Office of the Speaker will not have control over who is being interviewed,” the email said. “The firm will ask you questions about your experiences at work and recommendations for improvement. We ask that you be as open and as candid as you can with the interviewer.”

Welch is the state’s second House speaker in a row to be dogged by criticism over his handling of sexual harassment allegations. The downfall of his predecessor, longtime Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan, began with women angered by his handling of #MeToo incidents involving his campaign and government staff in 2017 and 2018. He is now in federal prison after being convicted on unrelated corruption charges.

As part of the fallout of the #MeToo incidents under Madigan, an outside investigation into his office and the House Democratic caucus was conducted by attorney Maggie Hickey, a former federal prosecutor and state executive inspector general under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Her investigation, which resulted in a 201-page report, concluded people repeatedly faced sexual harassment and bullying across the Illinois State Capitol and were too afraid of retaliation to speak out. After interviewing over 100 people, Hickey only found sufficient evidence to substantiate allegations in one of three specific cases she investigated, determining that Madigan’s ex-chief of staff, Tim Mapes, “made several inappropriate comments to or around” a House Democratic staffer.

Mapes, who was forced to resign in 2018 due to the sexual harassment scandal, also briefly served prison time for lying to a federal grand jury during the Madigan corruption probe.

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