Terms of Use

These Terms of Use ("Terms") govern access to and use of this website, its pages, content, forms, features, and associated materials (collectively, the "Site"). The Site is operated by Dr. Ryan Giffen ("Dr. Giffen," "we," "us," or "our").

By accessing, browsing, or using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand these Terms. By affirmatively agreeing to these Terms when submitting a contact form, you agree to be legally bound by them.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Site or submit information through it.

If you use the Site on behalf of a company, law firm, educational institution, nonprofit organization, government agency, or other entity, you represent that you have authority to act on that entity's behalf.

The Site is intended primarily for adults seeking professional information regarding Dr. Giffen's background, experience, speaking, facilitation, consulting, organizational-culture, leadership-development, academic, podcast, expert-witness, or related services.

You must be at least 18 years old to submit a professional-services inquiry or enter into an agreement through communications initiated on the Site.

The Site provides general information regarding Dr. Giffen's:

• Professional background and experience;
• Organizational-culture and human-resources expertise;
• Leadership-development services;
• Speaking, facilitation, workshops, and training;
• Academic, research, and publishing activities;
• Podcast and media work;
• Expert-witness and litigation-support services; and
• Other professional activities.

The Site may also provide educational articles, commentary, podcast information, presentations, descriptions of services, and links to third-party resources. Information on the Site is provided for general informational and promotional purposes. It is not a binding offer to provide services.

Site content is general in nature and is not tailored to the facts or circumstances of any particular organization, employee, dispute, legal matter, workplace investigation, lawsuit, or engagement.

Nothing on the Site constitutes:

• Legal advice;
• An interpretation of law for a particular situation;
• Tax or accounting advice;
• Medical or psychological advice;
• A formal human-resources recommendation for a specific employer;
• An expert opinion for a particular legal matter;
• A guarantee regarding litigation, employment, organizational, or business outcomes; or
• A substitute for advice from an appropriately qualified professional who has reviewed the relevant facts.

Employment laws, regulations, professional standards, workplace practices, and industry conditions may change. You should not act or refrain from acting solely because of information appearing on the Site.

Use of the Site does not create an attorney-client relationship, and Dr. Giffen is not acting as your attorney through the Site.

Accessing the Site, reviewing content, submitting a contact form, leaving a message, receiving an automated confirmation, or participating in an introductory conversation does not create:

• A consulting relationship;
• A coaching relationship;
• A speaker-client relationship;
• An expert-witness or litigation-support engagement;
• An attorney-client relationship;
• A fiduciary relationship;
• An employment relationship;
• An agency relationship; or
• Any other professional or contractual relationship.

A professional engagement exists only after:

1. Dr. Giffen has reviewed and accepted the matter;
2. Any appropriate conflicts review has been completed;
3. The parties have agreed upon the scope and terms;
4. A separate written agreement has been signed by the appropriate parties; and
5. Any required retainer or payment condition has been satisfied.

Dr. Giffen may accept or decline an inquiry in his discretion. Submission of an inquiry does not require Dr. Giffen to respond, accept the matter, reserve availability, or refrain from accepting another engagement. Any response-time statement displayed on the Site is an estimate or service goal rather than a guarantee.

When you submit a contact form, you agree to provide accurate information and a truthful, good-faith description of your inquiry.

By voluntarily providing an email address or telephone number, you authorize Dr. Giffen to contact you individually regarding the inquiry. If you provide a mobile telephone number, you authorize nonmarketing calls or text messages reasonably related to your inquiry. Standard message and data rates may apply.

This authorization does not subscribe you to a marketing list and does not constitute consent to automated promotional communications. You may withdraw your permission for further communications at any time.

You may not submit information through the contact form that:

• Is knowingly false, deceptive, or misleading;
• Violates another person's privacy or confidentiality rights;
• You do not have the authority to disclose;
• Is unlawful, threatening, defamatory, harassing, or discriminatory;
• Infringes intellectual-property rights;
• Contains malware, malicious code, or harmful instructions; or
• Is intended to interfere with the operation or security of the Site.

Although personal information submitted through the Site is handled in accordance with the Privacy Policy, a general Site inquiry is not automatically confidential, legally privileged, or protected as attorney work product. No conflicts review is completed merely because a form is submitted.

Do not use the general contact form to transmit:

• Confidential client files;
• Privileged communications;
• Attorney work product;
• Litigation strategy;
• Medical records;
• Private employment or personnel records;
• Employee-investigation materials;
• Trade secrets;
• Documents subject to a protective order;
• Sensitive personal identifiers; or
• Other information whose disclosure could prejudice a person or legal matter.

For an expert-witness or litigation-support inquiry, you may provide a high-level, nonconfidential description sufficient to identify the general subject, parties, forum, and requested service. Wait for confirmation of availability, completion of any appropriate conflicts review, and instructions for secure document transmission before sending case files.

Submission of information through the Site does not obligate Dr. Giffen to preserve materials as evidence, provide litigation-hold services, perform a conflicts review, or accept professional duties concerning a matter.

All consulting, speaking, training, expert-witness, academic, research, podcast, or other paid engagements are governed by a separate written agreement. If a separate signed agreement conflicts with these Terms regarding a professional engagement, the separate agreement controls with respect to that engagement.

You retain ownership of the original information you submit through the contact form. By submitting information, you grant Dr. Giffen a limited, nonexclusive right to receive, review, store, reproduce, and use the submission only as reasonably necessary to evaluate and respond to the inquiry, communicate with you, maintain appropriate business records, provide services under a subsequent agreement, protect legal rights or security, and comply with applicable law.

This limited permission does not authorize publication of your contact-form submission or use of it for third-party marketing. You represent that you have the legal right and authority to submit the information.

Unless otherwise stated, the Site and its content are owned by or licensed to Dr. Giffen and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable laws. You are granted a limited, revocable, nonexclusive, nontransferable license to access and view the Site for personal, informational, and legitimate professional-evaluation purposes.

Without prior written permission, you may not reproduce or republish substantial Site content, sell or commercially exploit Site content, modify or create derivative works, remove attribution notices, frame or mirror the Site, scrape or systematically extract Site content, use automated tools to collect Site content, or use Site content to train or develop an artificial-intelligence or machine-learning system.

Unless the Site expressly states otherwise, opinions and commentary attributed to Dr. Giffen are presented in his personal or professional capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of any current or former employer, university, client, law firm, podcast platform, professional association, conference organizer, or other organization with which Dr. Giffen has been affiliated.

Testimonials, descriptions of prior work, examples, case discussions, and professional accomplishments are provided for informational purposes. They reflect particular experiences or circumstances and do not guarantee that another individual or organization will obtain the same or similar results.

The Site may contain links to third-party websites, social-media platforms, podcast platforms, event-registration systems, articles, publications, or other resources. These links are provided for convenience and informational purposes. Dr. Giffen does not control and is not responsible for third-party content, accuracy, availability, privacy practices, security, terms, products, services, or conduct. A link does not constitute an endorsement or warranty.

You may not use the Site to violate any applicable law or regulation, infringe or misappropriate another person's rights, impersonate Dr. Giffen or another person, harvest visitor or contact information, introduce malware or harmful code, attempt unauthorized access to the Site or systems, interfere with Site performance or security, conduct vulnerability testing without written authorization, use bots or scraping tools except ordinary search-engine indexing, send spam or bulk solicitations, submit unlawful or fraudulent content, use Site content to build a competing commercial database, or assist another person in engaging in prohibited conduct.

Your use of the Site is also governed by the Privacy Policy, which explains the collection and use of information. The Privacy Policy is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

We may modify, suspend, restrict, discontinue, or remove any part of the Site at any time. We do not guarantee that the Site will always be available, content will remain unchanged, every page or feature will operate without error, or materials will remain available indefinitely.

Important — Please Read

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SITE AND ITS CONTENT ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." DR. GIFFEN DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS, IMPLIED, AND STATUTORY WARRANTIES RELATING TO THE SITE, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, SECURITY, RELIABILITY, AND AVAILABILITY.

DR. GIFFEN DOES NOT WARRANT THAT SITE CONTENT IS COMPLETE, CURRENT, OR ERROR-FREE; USE OF THE SITE WILL PRODUCE A PARTICULAR RESULT; THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR SECURE; OR INFORMATION ON THE SITE IS APPROPRIATE FOR A PARTICULAR EMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS, LEGAL, OR PROFESSIONAL DECISION.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DR. GIFFEN WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE SITE, INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE THE SITE, RELIANCE ON SITE CONTENT, THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES OR SERVICES, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF A SUBMISSION, OR LOSS OF DATA, REVENUE, PROFITS, BUSINESS, OPPORTUNITY, OR REPUTATION.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DR. GIFFEN'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR CLAIMS ARISING SOLELY FROM USE OF THE SITE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (1) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID SPECIFICALLY TO ACCESS THE SITE DURING THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM; OR (2) ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Dr. Giffen from claims, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees arising from your unlawful or unauthorized use of the Site, information or materials you submit, your infringement of another person's rights, your violation of these Terms, or your misuse of Site content.

We may restrict or terminate your access to the Site if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, interfered with Site operations, created a security risk, infringed another person's rights, or engaged in unlawful conduct. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will remain in effect.

These Terms and any dispute arising from the Site are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Except where applicable law requires otherwise, any action arising exclusively from use of the Site shall be brought in a state or federal court with jurisdiction in Los Angeles County, California. You consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

This section does not modify the governing-law or dispute-resolution provisions of a separate signed professional-services agreement.

We may update these Terms when the Site, services, business practices, or applicable laws change. Updated Terms will be posted on the Site with a revised "Last Updated" date. Your continued use of the Site after revised Terms become effective constitutes acceptance of those revised Terms.

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, that provision will be limited or modified to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in effect. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of that provision or any other provision.

These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire agreement concerning use of the Site. They do not replace or modify a separately signed professional-services agreement.

Questions concerning these Terms may be submitted through the Site's Contact page.

You may also call:

Dr. Ryan Giffen
Telephone: (949) 992-1164