Employment Law & Regulations

For over 20 years, Allison West has used her employment law background in delivering customized workplace training, conducting investigations, coaching executives/managers, serving as an expert witness, and specializing in conflict resolution and facilitated discussions to create more collaborative work environments. 

Allison is a top-rated speaker at the SHRM Annual Conference as well as other HR/diversity conferences, and is a national expert on harassment, discrimination and investigations. She has appeared on PBS, CBS This Morning and in O Magazine discussing workplace harassment issues. 

She is a member of the State Bar of California and holds her SHRM-SCP certification and AWI-CH (investigation) certificate.

Matthew Effland is the Vice President – Employment Counsel for KAR Auction Services, Inc.  KAR is a provider of vehicle auction services in North America, facilitating the used vehicle marketplace by providing auction services for sellers of used, or whole car, vehicles and salvage vehicles through its auction locations and multiple internet venues. The Company has a network of 65 whole car auction locations and 164 salvage auction locations, as well as offering a variety of online and financing services.  In his role, Matt provides guidance and support to KAR’s Human Resources department, drawing on his 14 years of management-side private practice.  Matt is licensed in both California and Indiana, and is the author of the recently-published SHRM Book ”The Perils and Pitfalls of California Employment Law: A Guide for HR Professionals.”

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.

Greg Hare has been an employment lawyer at Ogletree Deakins his entire career, since 1991. He assists companies with human resources and employment-related litigation matters, including wrongful termination claims, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, employment contracts, trade secrets, and non-compete agreements. He advises clients on a wide range of human resources topics, such as drug testing, employee discipline and discharge, severance planning, independent contractor classifications, wage payment, family and medical leave, disability law, military leave, joint employment issues, affirmative action, and reductions in force. Mr. Hare also counsels clients on traditional labor relations and matters involving the National Labor Relations Board.

Gali Gordon manages Gordon Law Group PC, a boutique immigration law firm in San Francisco. She speaks on immigration issues both nationally and locally, and has served as an expert witness on immigration matters. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, Gali was named a ‘Rising Star’ by Super Lawyers magazine, an honor awarded to the top 2.5 percent of immigration lawyers in Northern California under age 40. Gali graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, Berkeley and received her law degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She spent the first several years of her career at the law firms of Morrison and Foerster LLP and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC, where she represented venture-financed start-up companies, venture capital funds, and Fortune 500 companies, as well as refugees and asylees pro bono. Gali has lived and traveled abroad extensively, and enjoys working with people of different cultures.

Two themes are woven throughout Lauraine Bifulco's diverse career: a passion for a job well done and a zest for continual learning and improvement.  Lauraine infuses Vantaggio HR with these qualities every day. When she founded the firm in 1994, Lauraine combined her rare talent in understanding what a client needs and her gift of business foresight to create a company that can service the HR and management consulting needs of small and large companies equally well.  Today, Vantaggio serves clients across the country from their offices in California, Hawaii, Colorado, and New York. 

Her Career experience helps employers realize their HR goals and adapt to the shifting HR landscape.  Lauraine is a veteran HR executive and entrepreneur with 25 years of international, corporate, and consulting experience. Her bold career has taken her to employment and business opportunities in Europe and multiple U.S. cities. She serves as co-chair of the California Small Business Administration's committee on Labor Issues which reviews and makes recommendations on pending labor/employment laws, keeping her abreast of legal developments.                                                                            

Delivering over 30 presentations and webinars each year, Lauraine is a well-respected, and highly sought after guest lecturer and speaker on a variety of business management and HR-related topics for both state and national organizations including Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA), American Payroll Association (APA), Next Concept HR Association (NCHRA), Paylocity annual Elevate Conference, and HR Star Conference to name a few. She has been invited to review, develop, and deliver certificate programs for SHRM, and has developed and delivered curriculum for businesses throughout the U.S.                                                                   

Lauraine received a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and conducted graduate level studies in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris.

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.

Jathan Janove, a former state bar Employment Lawyer of the Year and now Executive Coach and Organization Development consultant, writes SHRM’s “Putting Humanity into HR Compliance” column, and is a Master Coach and Practice Leader with the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching organization, including writing its Ask the Coach column. He’s the author, most recently, of “Hard-Won Wisdom: True Stories From The Management Trenches” (HarperCollins 2017). He’s currently working on his next book, “From Compliance Cop to Culture Coach: Transforming the HR Profession.”