Welcome to the New LawRoom Blog!

Okay, it’s time for me to join the 21^st Century by creating a blog for LawRoom. So, let’s start with some history from way back in the 20^th century.

For the past 20 years, employment law has been my passion. It’s not only because I’m a lawyer, but because I founded and run a business. I realized that most business owners and Human Resource professionals try to do the right thing by employees. After all, happy employees make for good business.

However, because of the complex web of overlapping and conflicting state and federal laws, what you believe is ethically and legally correct . . . may in fact be illegal.

And, unfortunately, getting competent, accurate answers to your questions on harassment, discrimination, wage and hour, family leave, ethics and thousands of related employment law questions was inefficient and costly.

So, in the early 90’s I started researching how to make the law easy and affordable to access through automation. In 1994, I brought together a team of California lawyer-writers and programmers and formed LawRoom.

Beyond providing clear, usable information, we tackled a major challenge: how to instantly provide tailored answers that integrate and comply with California and federal laws in one answer. It was a daunting task because it had never been done.

Undaunted, we developed proprietary software to deliver instant, written, answers tailored to a company profile. In 1996, we launched a fax-back service. But we quickly realized that there was a new and more powerful way to deliver employment law compliance.

It was called the Internet.

In 2000, with only 400 members, LawRoom converted its fax-back service to an online-only platform -- and we never looked back. In 2005, we launched online training. By the start of 2011, LawRoom serviced over 57,000 companies in all 50 states and trained 2,400 companies on Anti-harassment, including sexual harassment training (AB 1825 for our California employers), and other employment law related subjects.

I live in Danville, California and spend most of my time at our offices in Walnut Creek. I work with 30+ talented people and my number-one supporter, CFO, friend, lover -- and my most significant other, Teresa -- a lady with whom I have happily spent the past 33 years.

More to follow, 

Ralph