Karina B. Sterman

Employment Partner Karina Sterman authored an article for HR Dive titled "HR records in the cloud can create a perfect storm." In the piece, Karina explores the legal consequences of discarding personnel files and the importance of maintaining organized records. 

Excerpts: 

In today’s hybrid workplaces, where conversations unfold across Slack threads and performance feedback arrives via email, personnel records are no longer confined to filing cabinets or even designated HRIS platforms.

Yet too many employers still treat personnel files as static collections of paper documents and forms, ignoring the vast — and often legally relevant — trail left in digital formats.

This oversight isn’t just an administrative gap; it’s a compliance risk. California law, for example, gives employees the right to inspect or obtain copies of their personnel records upon request. If your HR team can’t produce key performance-related documents because they lived in a deleted email account or were wiped along with a departing employee’s laptop, your organization could face serious legal consequences.