Why Three Sides?
We're all familiar with the saying that there are two sides to every story. I don't think that's quite right.
There's your side. There's their side. And then there's what you can see when you step back, ask questions, and understand the situation from more than one point of view.
That's the idea behind Three Sides Advisory.
After years working across law, human resources, risk, claims, and organizational leadership, I've learned that the hardest problems rarely have one obvious answer—or one person who is entirely right. An employee sees one thing. A manager sees another. HR, legal, leadership, or outside counsel may see something else entirely.
My job is to understand those perspectives without getting stuck in any one of them.
And sometimes, my job is to provide that independent third perspective.
In expert witness work, I bring the same approach to disputes that have already become claims or litigation. I look at the facts, the decisions that were made, the processes that were followed, and the realities of how workplaces actually operate. Then I offer an independent opinion grounded in my experience across employment law, HR, investigations, labor relations, claims, risk, and organizational leadership.
I'm not there to become another version of one side's story. I'm there to evaluate the situation, explain the workplace context, and give a clear, supportable opinion about what I see.
That same instinct runs through everything I do.
Whether I'm helping an attorney evaluate a case, an organization navigate a difficult workplace situation, or an individual figure out what to do next at work, I look for that third side: the perspective that becomes visible when you understand the whole picture.
Because understanding more than one side of the problem usually leads to a better analysis—and a better decision.
The law is the floor.
I’m a lawyer. That matters.
My legal training and years spent dealing with employment law, litigation, claims, investigations, labor relations, HR, and risk fundamentally shape the way I look at problems.
I’ve seen what happens when an ordinary workplace problem turns into a claim, a lawsuit, an agency charge, or a very expensive stack of documents.
That perspective is useful.
But Three Sides isn’t a law firm, and I didn’t build it just to tell people what they’re legally allowed to do.
The law is the floor.
Clearing the legal bar is important. It is not necessarily an achievement.
Because I care deeply about people.
Not “people” in the corporate-slogan, PEOPLE ARE OUR GREATEST ASSET sense.
Actual people.
The employee who is scared they’re about to lose their job. The manager who has no idea how to have the conversation they need to have. The HR person stuck between five competing interests. The executive trying to make a difficult decision without making things worse.
Work is a huge part of people’s lives. What happens there matters.
And I believe — pretty stubbornly, actually — that businesses can be successful and treat people well.
You can make money and be empathetic.
You can hold people accountable and treat them with dignity.
You can have high expectations and good managers.
You can make difficult business decisions without forgetting that the person sitting across the table has to go home and live with the consequences.
You can say no without being an asshole.
None of this requires abandoning business judgment. I like profitable companies. I respect budgets. I respect operations. I even like accountants. Some of my favorite people are accountants.
Sometimes the humane answer costs more.
Sometimes it costs less.
And sometimes treating someone like a human being costs absolutely nothing — except perhaps an uncomfortable conversation someone has been avoiding for three weeks.
Those are the organizations I want to work with.
I’m not interested in helping a company figure out the absolute minimum it can legally get away with.
I want to work with people who care about building good businesses and being good to the humans who make those businesses work.
They don’t have to have it all figured out. Nobody does.
They just have to care.
So what does that look like?
I’m usually asking more questions than just:
Can we do this?
What should we do?
What makes sense here?
What are we missing?
What does this look like from the other side?
Are we solving the real problem, or are we writing a policy about it?
Are we about to turn something relatively simple into a six-month ordeal involving twelve people and seventeen meetings?
Sometimes you need a lawyer.
Sometimes you need HR.
Sometimes you need a spreadsheet.
Sometimes somebody needs to have the uncomfortable conversation.
And sometimes you need someone to walk in, look at the whole mess, and ask:
Why are we making this so complicated?
That’s Three Sides.
Not just:
What can we do?
But:
What actually makes sense — for the business and the people in it?