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Most HR advice explains the policy. Most legal advice explains the risk. Leadership requires knowing what to do next.

I’ve spent more than 20 years leading HR, became a licensed attorney, and sat at the executive table where these decisions are actually made.

I help leaders navigate those moments with practical judgment, legal insight, and the confidence to make better workplace decisions.

Latisha Newby, Esq.
SHRM-SCP · PHR · J.D. · 20 years in executive HR

Latisha Newby, founder of Cultivate HR Consulting, on a staircase in a hot pink suit.
J.D. licensed attorney
SHRM-SCP · PHR · M.S. HRD
20 years in executive HR
and employment law
80% student pass rate
Fall 2023 – Spring 2026
5.0 on Google
The problem

Policies don’t make people decisions.Leaders do.

A leave request. A complaint. A difficult conversation. A hiring decision. A warning. A separation.

Leaders make people decisions every day, and almost none of them come with complete information. Waiting isn’t usually an option. The decision still has to be made.

The quality of your workplace is shaped by the quality of the decisions your leaders make every day.

Why it matters

A decision made without the right information rarely stays a small decision.

  1. One difficult conversation becomes an employee relations issue.
  2. An employee relations issue left alone becomes disengagement, then turnover.
  3. A complaint handled without a process becomes an investigation.
  4. An investigation without a record becomes a compliance issue.
  5. A compliance issue eventually becomes an expense that could have been prevented.

None of that begins as a legal problem. It begins as a Tuesday.

What leaders actually ask

These are the questions leaders search at eleven at night, after the conversation has already happened. The Leadership Library answers them. Free, always.

Open the Leadership Library
How we help

One mission. Four ways to partner.

Every engagement is built around the same goal: helping leaders make better workplace decisions with greater confidence, stronger judgment, and less organizational risk.

Fractional CHRO, Compliance, Investigations

HR Consulting for Organizations

Senior HR judgment without a senior HR salary. People strategy, escalations, policy and classification, and independent investigations.

For the decisions your HR generalist should not be making alone.

 The Legally Savvy Leader™

Leadership Development

Training that gets managers making legally sound, humane decisions in the moment — not looking them up afterwards.

For the decisions that happen before anyone thinks to ask HR.

 Conferences, Associations, Teams

Speaking and Training

Employment law and leadership in plain language, built on real workplace situations rather than hypotheticals.

For rooms full of people who each decide something on Monday.

 SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR

HR Certification Programs

Certification prep taught by someone who applies this law for a living, for individuals and for whole HR teams.

For the people your organization relies on to know the answer.
Free · 3 minutes · no templates

Is your workplace investigation defensible?

Twelve questions about how you actually handle complaints. You get a scored result and the two places you are most exposed — not a form to fill in, a straight read on where you stand.

One email. You can leave at any time. See our privacy policy.

Latisha Newby taking notes at a boardroom table.
Why trust us

Twenty years inside the room where these decisions get made.

I am an HR consultant with a law degree. I spent two decades in executive HR, most recently as Chief People & Legal Officer at a national nonprofit.

I teach SHRM certification as Certification Director for SHRM Raleigh Metro, and I speak on employment law and leadership across the Southeast. That combination is the whole point: I can tell you what the law requires and what will actually work with the people in front of you.

Read the full background

Where I have spoken and taught

  • Raleigh Chamber of Commerce
  • NC State University
  • Wake Forest University School of Law
  • Athena Leadership Conference
  • Carolina Payroll Conference
  • SHEEvolved
  • SHRM Raleigh Metro
  • Jones Advisors
  • NC National Association of Health Services Executives

What clients say

“Latisha has a broad range of skills that include compliance, benefits, training, and employee management. She is a caring professional who tries to find solutions that benefit both the employer and employee.”

Patricia Spillane University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Read the Google reviews
Choose your path

Where would you like to start?

For Organizations

Fractional CHRO, compliance, investigations and leadership development.

See the services

HR Certification

The Accelerator, on-demand, and cohorts for whole teams.

See the Accelerator

Leadership Library

Free, plain-language answers on employment law and employee relations.

Open the Library

Talk It Through

Thirty minutes on the situation actually in front of you. No pitch.

Book a conversation