Employment Law & Regulations

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the founder/CEO of Civility Partners, a strategic organizational development firm focused on helping organizations create respectful workplace cultures and specializing in turning around toxic cultures. Civility Partners’ clients range from Fortune 500's to small businesses across many industries. Catherine is a TEDx speaker and an HR thought-leader who has appeared in such venues as USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, and many other national news outlets as an expert. She’s an award-winning speaker and blogger, author of three books, and she has 50+ courses reaching global audiences on LinkedIn Learning.

 

Joseph (“Joe”) Beachboard is a nationally recognized employment lawyer who also closely tracks the most important developments at the U.S. Supreme Court impacting the business community. He has more than 30 years of experience representing management in a wide variety of employment and labor matters in perhaps the most challenging state in the nation for employers – California.  Mr. Beachboard speaks regularly before human resource and employer groups on cutting edge employment law topics.  He is a member of SHRM and has been an annual presenter at both the SHRM Annual Conference and the Employment Law and Compliance Conference for two decades.  Mr. Beachboard is frequently quoted in such leading publications as HR Magazine, National Law Journal, Los Angeles Times, NY Times, HR Executive and Workforce, and has been published in dozens of legal and business journals. Throughout his career in Los Angeles, Mr. Beachboard has represented dozens of studios and entertainment properties.  He cites his most interesting project as working with the cast and crew of the television show The Office, from its pilot through the final season.

 

 

Nicole Butts is an accomplished Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion executive, strategist, and coach who specializes in transforming executives into inclusive and equitable organizational leaders.

During her 20-year career, she has built multiple inaugural DEI offices; served as a chief diversity officer; a director of employee diversity, inclusion, and climate; and a director of equal employment.

Nicole is the founder of NLYB Solutions, a DEI consulting firm helping executives, executive teams, and organizations courageously and effectively navigate personal, professional, and organizational DEI journeys. She is the creator of SHIFT, a transformational five-step framework for creating systemic, effective, measurable, and sustainable DEI cultures.

Aaron Zandy is a Board Certified Specialist in Labor and Employment Law who represents employers and management in all areas of traditional labor and employment law.

Aaron is an experienced trial lawyer, having tried a variety of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims under federal and state law. He also has extensive traditional labor law experience, including collective bargaining, union campaigns, and labor arbitrations. As a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Aaron provides around-the-clock, proactive, and common sense counseling and guidance to employers on every aspect of the employer-employee relationship. As a highly acclaimed and recognized speaker, teacher, and trainer, he regularly provides high-intensity, high-content seminars and classes for human resources professionals and managers.

Mr. Rittof is the President and CEO of Modern Management, Inc. and an employee relations consultant His proactive approach to employee relations has roots in a broad spectrum of activities including organizational re-design studies, employee opinion surveys, communication audits, and labor relations seminars. As President/CEO, he leads a team of dedicated professionals in helping executives, managers, and supervisors face the challenges of the future. A graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Mr. Rittof holds a B.A. and M.A. in Organizational Communication. He has taught at the university level and is co-author of Quality Circles, a textbook utilized by several universities and businesses. Since joining the firm over 33 years ago, he has consulted in virtually all aspects of employee relations. His experience encompasses healthcare, manufacturing, gaming, hospitality, banking, services, insurance, and government. A few of Mr. Rittof’s many accomplishments include successfully assisting numerous organizations in maintaining non-union status; providing preventive management training programs regarding the union campaign process; developing identification and action planning processes for responding to employee morale issues; and implementing communication plans for organizations in transition. He has also provided coaching and guidance for executives wishing to improve their public speaking skills and frequently facilitated executive retreats for strategic planning and team building.

Gordon M. Berger works with employers to resolve complex employment disputes and to reduce litigation risk. He regularly advises businesses in a multitude of employment and corporate law matters, including EEO, wage & hour, restrictive covenants, employment agreements and day-to-day employment and business law issues.  Gordon is especially experienced in advising alternative staffing organizations or administrative services organizations (ASOs), professional employer organizations (PEOs) and staffing companies.

Gordon reviews and drafts employment agreements, covenants not to compete and employee handbooks to ensure compliance with state and federal employment laws.  He is also adept at responding to EEO and DOL inquiries and has more than 20 years of experience in litigation defense.  Gordon routinely assists clients with employment law training needs for their HR personnel and front-line managers, ensuring that common areas of employment law liability are proactively identified and addressed.

Follow Gordon on Twitter @employeratty.

Ms. Walters has more than 30 years’ combined experience in management, HR administration, employment law practice, and teaching.

She has presented at conferences across the country, been engaged as an expert witness, and testified before U.S. Congressional and state legislative committees on employment issues.

Her book, “From Hello to Goodbye: Proactive Tips for Maintaining Positive Employee Relations” is in its 2nd edition and was one of the SHRMStore’s “Great 8” best-sellers for eight consecutive years.

Today, Ms. Walters works as an independent consultant doing business as FiveL Company, “Helping Leaders Limit their Liability by Learning the Law.”SM

 

 

A founding member of Andrews • Lagasse • Branch & Bell LLP and specializes in all aspects of employment law.   She provides quality and result-oriented representation for employers who are sued for harassment, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, wage and hour violations, breach of contract and other related issues.  She also represents employers before administrative agencies, such as the California Labor Commissioner, the U.S. Department of Labor, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and others. 

Doug Green is currently the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Guaranteed Rate mortgage company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.  He leads the HR efforts for the 2,500 employee company that has a presence in all 50 states, and has mediated countless internal employment disputes.  

Prior to joining Guaranteed Rate, he represented companies in mediations before the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

While working for US Congress, he represented the House of Representatives and the Office of House Employment Counsel in mediations before the Office of Compliance.

He works for a sports agent and has negotiated several multi-million dollar coaching contracts with top universities and NFL clubs.

And for the last seven years, Doug has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University College of Law where he teaches a mediation seminar each semester.