Michael A. Crane | Kiernan Group Holdings

Michael A. Crane
Compliance and Risk Management Counsel

Michael A. Crane is an Illinois licensed attorney and private detective. He specializes in conducting security and behavioral threat assessments, and workplace investigations where allegations have been made by an employee against the company alleging harassment, discrimination, criminal activity, threats of violence, etc. He also conducts training in workplace violence prevention and active shooter response.

Previously, Mr. Crane was Senior Vice President and Corporate Counsel at Hillard Heintze, an international security risk management and investigation firm based in Chicago, IL from 2014-2017. He established an exceptional track record across the United States as an accomplished attorney, strategic business advisor and corporate executive at the leading edge of evolving best practices in security risk management. He specialized in conducting security assessments for corporate and high net worth individuals and family offices, conducting behavioral threat assessments for at-risk clients, providing in-house legal advice, and creating and providing training on emergency management with subsets for workplace violence prevention and active shooter plans.

Prior to this, Mr. Crane was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of IPC International Corporation, which was a full-service security consulting, investigative, and protective services company licensed in all 50 states. IPC International specialized in providing innovative security solutions to business risks. Among other responsibilities, Mr. Crane was responsible for insurance oversight and liability claims administration coordinating with outside law firms their claims negotiations.

Mr. Crane started his career while in law school working for the Illinois Bureau of Investigation and the Chicago Police Department. He then became a trial attorney in the Cook County State Attorney’s Office and thereafter moved to a Chicago law firm, handling both civil and criminal cases.

He has lectured extensively on workplace violence, legal liability in the security industry, and taught at Webster University in the graduate program for Security Management. He has been called as an expert witness in security related litigation.

Mr. Crane was selected to participate in the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group’s, Workplace Violence Planning Meeting held at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He was later invited to attend the FBI’s Violence in the Workplace Symposium held in Leesburg, Virginia. This select group of law enforcement and private security leaders helped direct the FBI’s efforts in workplace violence education, prevention and response leading to the publication of the FBI’s Workplace Violence-Issues in Response.

Mr. Crane has been designated a Certified Protection Professional (CPP) by ASIS International (ASIS) and is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). He was a founding member of the ASIS Standards and Guidelines Commission and oversaw the development of the first Workplace Violence Prevention ANSI Standard and is currently overseeing a new Active Assailant Standard. He is also the Program Director for the ASIS Asset Protection II Course. He is a member of the Chicago Chapter of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) and formerly served as a member of their National Board of Directors. He is a member of the Illinois and Chicago Bar Associations, the Association of Corporate Counsel, and the North Shore Labor Counsel.

He served from 2005-2009 as the first Chairman of the Private Sector Committee of the Illinois Terrorism Taskforce. In this capacity he advised the Private Sector Alliance Project comprised of the Infrastructure Security Awareness Program of the Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center (STIC) and the Mutual Aid Response Network Program for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

Mr. Crane is a 2009 graduate of the Executive Leadership Program of the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.