Title IX Investigations.

One of the original and most influential leaders of our company, his education, guidance, and general counsel background and expertise were critical in our initial development and will continue to be so in our efforts to serve the nation’s higher education community.

Jim has over 30 years’ experience providing legal advice and counsel to complex organizations, including over 20 years’ combined service as the General Counsel for the University of Kansas and subsequently for the University of Nebraska. As such, he served as the principal legal advisor to the universities’ chief executive officers and other senior administrators. Both universities are comprehensive research universities with academic medical centers and student populations ranging from 28,000 to 51,000 on multiple university campuses. Faculty and staff employees ranged from 7,000 to 16,000. His duties included supervision of 10 or more attorneys and support staff and responsibility for legal advice on all university operational matters, including investigations covering student affairs, labor and employment matters, Title IX compliance, and intercollegiate athletics.

Prior to his university career, Jim was a career Army officer. His 25-plus years in in the Army were served primarily in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. He served as the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 10^th Mountain Division and Ft. Drum, New York, where he had a staff of 21 attorneys and more than 50 support personnel to assist more than 10,500 soldiers and 2,000 civilian employees. He also served as the Deputy SJA for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York providing legal services that included employment law, sexual harassment law, labor law, student discipline, intercollegiate athletics, and intellectual property law, as well as advice and oversight on investigations for staff and students. He has held above top secret security clearances and been involved in sensitive investigations during his career.

Jim is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York with a Bachelor of Science degree in general engineering. He is also a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law where he was the Articles Editor of the Kansas Law Review and a member of Moot Court Council. Jim earned an M.A. degree in national security and strategic studies, with highest distinction, from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and he holds an LL.M., with distinction, in Administrative Law from The Judge Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Finally, in addition to graduating from the resident course of the Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he earned an M.A. degree in human resource management from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

Ralph provides professional services as a Hearing Officer/Decision Maker, Investigator, Claimant/Respondent Representative and Mediator on matters including employee misconduct and/or performance, harassment complaints under the Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, and discrimination complaints under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Ralph served 29 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, first as a combat engineer officer and then as a judge advocate. Before his retirement from the military, Ralph served in billets including platoon commander, engineer detachment commander, prosecutor, defense counsel, staff judge advocate, and military judge. During seven years as a military judge Ralph presided over more than 500 courts martial and served as the first Chief Judge of the U.S. Military Commissions Trial Judiciary in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. While assigned to the Army’s Judge Advocate General School (TJAGSA) at the University of Virginia, Ralph served as Professor of Law, teaching evidence, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy.

Following retirement from uniformed service, Ralph accepted an appointment in the Navy's Office of General Counsel. During 13 years of Federal Civil Service Ralph served as a Special Assistant, U. S. Attorney, prosecuting Federal Employment Compensation Act fraud cases, defending the DON against Equal Employment Opportunity claims, and representing the DON regarding misconduct and performance action appeals by Federal Employees to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

Ralph is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy (BS), the Delaware Law School of Widener University (JD), TJAGSA (LLM) and the U. S. Naval War College (MS).

Laurel is a highly experienced Title IX investigator. She also serves as one of our most respected Title IX decision-makers. Laurel is an attorney by training. Her career spanned 21 years in the United States Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where she served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, a criminal prosecutor, and in various other positions in administrative law, family law, and on the Army staff in policy positions at the Pentagon. Laurel served as a legal advisor to Department of Defense School Boards and as the Chief of Recruiting for Army lawyers at law schools throughout the United States.

After retiring from the military, Laurel proved herself an astute and highly successful business professional. Her business acumen is a frequent source of insight to many of our clients. She served as an Area Representative for a national franchise and purchased and co-owned the Oklahoma and Northern Texas territories and the rights to develop Marco’s Pizza Franchises in those areas. Laurel was responsible for opening/selling 40 stores in the area in five years. She owned/operated seven Marco’s Pizza Franchise Stores with annual sales exceeding $6 million dollars in revenue with 285 employees and supervised 12 other franchisees operating within the market. Laurel was named: Best AR/Franchisee of the Year – 3 three years, Top Sales in Franchise – two years, and Top Veteran Franchise Owner in the U.S. -- one year.

Laurel was based in Colorado from 2015 until November 2023. She served on the Summit County Seniors Foundation Board and on the board for the Summit 50 Plus organization (a 1200-member nonprofit that serves older adults in the community.) She delivered Meals on Wheels and worked for and supervised the Mountain Safety Patrol at Copper Mountain throughout the winters.

Laurel earned her business degree and law degree at the University of Georgia. She also holds an L.L.M. and an M.A. in national security and strategic studies.

Laurel currently resides in Tennessee.