When an organization is faced with an internal dispute, or legal or regulatory complaint, such as EEO, Clery Act, Title IX, discrimination, harassment, workplace violence, or labor contract violation, HR is front and center, but may not have the people, time or experience internally to effectively and professionally deal with the complex and sensitive situation. At the same time, there might not be funds for useof legal counsel for fact-finding, holding hearings, negotiating or training, yet the situation demands resolution. Pegan Law is here to help you.
To keep costs down, Pegan Law is designed as a virtual boutique law firm using retired or highly experienced staff on an as-needed basis. Based in Northern California, we provide unbundled legal, human resources, investigatory, mediation and dispute resolution services. The principal, John R. Pegan, is licensed in California. Our goal is to assist organizations, their primary legal counsel, and concerned stakeholders – to mitigate liability, provide fair and professional investigations and hearings; to resolve or prevent complaints in a cost effective but professional, fair and impartial manner.
For institutions looking to attract international candidates, and for students and families looking for education or post-collegiate work in the United States, we bring over a decade of counseling and study of hundreds of colleges and schools and funding resources, to find the right match for study, work or investment to make your dreams a reality.
Investigations
When concerns or allegations arise regarding compliance with regulations or laws, including sexual harassment, discrimination, violence – a competent and neutral investigation or fact-finding is often essential. This process strains staff, time, skills and resources to produce a process that will be fair and withstand legal scrutiny. Pegan Law brings to the table trained and experienced staff to conduct fact-finding in a professional, impartial and cost-effective manner.
Hearings, Mediation & Arbitration
To provide fairness and due process, many laws, regulations, grants, or labor agreements require or encourage the use of hearings, mediation or arbitration. With our years of experience in dispute resolution, and human resources, Pegan Law can assist you in all aspects of dispute resolution, whether as a Mediator, Arbitrator, Hearing or Compliance Officer, or advising or representing you at a hearing, mediation or arbitration.
Mr. Pegan has a Master’s in dispute resolution and negotiations from Pepperdine’s School Law, the top program in the country, and 20 years’ experience training, conducting and representing parties in hearings, mediation, arbitration, negotiation and cross-cultural dispute resolution. He is the recipient of the CALI Award for Academic Excellence in International Arbitration and was recognized by the Idaho Supreme Court for his work on revising their Trial Judge Handbook. With over 10 years experience as a HR Director and Labor Analyst he has been the EEO, Affirmative Action, and/or Title IX Compliance Officer and Hearing Officer for various organizations including a community college district, county government and multi-county non-profit organization.
Human Resources Counseling and Training
Human Resources staff are strapped – for time, training, funding, and even knowing what to do in the face of contradictory or burdensome regulations or the emergency of a discrimination or harassment complaint. Smaller organizations are often faced with the difficult question: keep tasks in-house or out-source them?
Pegan Law can act as an interim or outsourced Chief HR Officer or assist you while you answer these question. We will bring our years of experience to bear on staff training, regulatory compliance, investigations, and hearings to work out a cost effective solution.
Employee and Labor Relations
It has been said that the problem with human resources is that the resources are human. People can be complicated, entertaining yet irritating, horrifying and comforting, funny and tragic. Add in the mix – complex laws created by people with conflicting agendas, enforced by people who may or may not understand your industry and no sympathy for the difficulty of compliance, with management that often under-funds HR, and it is no wonder that being an HR Director can be one of the most demanding jobs imaginable.
Pegan Law understands your predicament and can work with you and your legal counsel on cost effective outsourcing alternatives for select areas of HR, such as Hearing Officers, investigations, training, compliance officer duties, workplace disputes, employee and labor relations and negotiations and labor contract compliance.
Regulatory Compliance
While we cannot guarantee making sense of the sometimes conflicting regulations coming out of Washington or the State Capitol, we can work with you and your legal counsel on cost effective implementation and training, investigations and processes. Our focus is on litigation and liability mitigation, effective dispute resolution, and conflict and compliance management. We also conduct internal affairs investigations requiring high sensitivity and professional experience.
Negotiations
Your legal counsel can guide you through the evolving world of labor and employment rights and the role of unions and regulatory agencies such as the NLRB or PERB. Pegan Law can help mediate or conciliate those negotiations that hit snags or communication difficulties. We will bring our years of training and labor negotiation and dispute resolution experience to the table to help break the blocks in communication and settlement, or provide an analysis of the underlying interests or issues preventing closure and moving forward.
Education & Administrative Law
Pegan Law can be your assigned compliance or hearing officer, we can conduct hearings on education and administrative law regulation, represent your organization at administrative hearings, make appearance on behalf of you or your legal counsel, and provide the necessary training, follow-up and assessment needed to keep your organization in compliance. Occasionally an internal investigation is needed as part of a legal or regulatory concern, Pegan Law is ready to assist you on these sensitive and important matters.
Non-Profit
If you work in a not-for-profit today – you are pressed to maximize resources to focus on the services you were created to provide. With financial limits on back- office and administrative support, you need to make every dollar count. Pegan Law can be your interim HR or outsourced HR solution. Mr. Pegan worked for seven years as the HR Director of a large multi-county non- profit and has been on the Board of Directors of other community service non- profits and understands your HR and legal needs. Together we can craft an interim or outsourcing package to address your legal and HR needs in a compassionate and professional manner.
Attorney Support Services
If you’re providing legal counsel to an organization, government agency, college, K- 12 school district, or a non-profit and are conducting training, investigations, or dispute resolution, or other legal services, these can get prohibitively expensive for clients or end up being a loss leader in your practice. If you need unbundled back- office or contract assistance without endangering your client relationship, we can help, whether it’s making appearances, handling training, investigations, or holding hearings, mediations or arbitrations. As a virtual boutique law firm using highly experienced project-based staff on an as-needed basis, we can keep your costs down while providing the competent professional quality services you expect and need.
Student Services, College & Career Coaching
For institutions looking to attract international candidates, and for students and families looking for education or post-collegiate work in the United States, we bring over a decade of counseling and study of hundreds of colleges and schools to find the right match for study, work or investment to make your dreams a reality.
Mr. Pegan has provided counseling to foreign and domestic students since 1998. He has taught in China at the under graduate and graduate level, and has personally visited and researched hundreds of 2 and 4-year colleges, and assisted students in their admission to elite universities and colleges and other top 100 schools as well as finding the right match in the affordable community college system.