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About Sharon Jutila

Sharon Jutila is an attorney and human resources expert with over twenty-five years’ experience providing advice and recommendations to a wide range of businesses. She is a well-respected trainer and speaker on human resources and employment compliance issues having presented at over a hundred conferences. Over the span of her career, Sharon has assisted dozens of clients, spanning the range from high-tech semiconductor companies to roofing and stucco companies.

After a successful law career, she joined one of her clients to create its human resources department from the ground up. Since that time, she has continued to work in the human resources industry as an employee and has spent over thirteen years in a consultant role.

Recently, the opportunity arose to start SMJ Consulting after having provided consulting expertise for thirteen years with a regional company that closed its consulting operations. Having forged strong bonds with her clients, Sharon felt that forming her own company would allow her to continue to offer valuable advice to those businesses. SMJ Consulting is built on being a business partner and vested party in the success of each and every organization that works with us.

During her career, Sharon has handled all matters related to labor and employment including hiring, discipline, termination, discrimination and harassment prevention, wage and hour, employee leaves, return to work and union issues. She is knowledgeable on ADA, ADEA, Title VII, FLSA, FMLA, IRCA, NLRA, OSHA and state laws across the country dealing with similar issues. Sharon has handled administrative complaints filed against clients with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Oregon Employment Division, Oregon Employment Relations Board, Arizona Civil Rights Division, Alaska Human Rights Commission, Department of Economic Security, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, United States Department of Labor, and the National Labor Relations Board. She also develops and conducts employee training for clients and for the public on a wide variety of employment matters, including anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, prevention of workplace violence, proper paperwork procedures for I-9 forms and hiring documents, storage and maintenance of personnel files, and employee discipline and termination.

In addition, she is a trained mediator who has experience resolving disputes between parties. As a result, Sharon’s approach to human resources issues and matters focuses on preventing problems before they arise for clients and responding proactively to client’s issues and concerns to minimize the needs for extensive legal intervention and their resulting costs.

While practicing law, Sharon was a shareholder attorney at Ogletree Deakins, a national labor and employment law firm with 600 lawyers in 41 offices. Prior to joining Ogletree Deakins, she was a partner attorney at Stinson Morrison Hecker, a national law firm with 300 attorneys in eight locations. She also practiced in Oregon in the employment division of a regional law firm. Before pursuing a career in law, she was the Media Director for a regional advertising agency in South Dakota. Sharon graduated magna cum laude from the University of North Dakota with a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising, and received her Juris Doctorate degree, Order of the Coif and graduating 10th in her class, from the University of Oregon School of Law. Sharon currently resides in Vancouver, WA and is licensed in Oregon, Alaska, and Arizona.