Global Employment & Immigration

We have well-established employment capabilities across our offices worldwide that enable us to provide employment advice on the full spectrum of workforce issues at all stages of the employment life cycle.

We help employers answer and address the toughest workforce questions and challenges they encounter when operating or expanding overseas. Rarely is there a single set of employment standards and code of ethics for all employees in a global company, so we help document regulations and expectations in each country while creating integrated standards for a global workforce.

We also counsel clients on the main statutes and regulations relating to employment in each country. These include laws surrounding discrimination and harassment, employee privacy, background checks and testing, hiring processes, terminations and reductions in force, trade secrets and restrictive covenants, independent contractor relationships, and employment manuals.

Worker representation laws vary across countries and regions. Employers need a skilled and insightful team to keep pace with the changing dynamics of works councils or workers’ committees. Our lawyers counsel employers in connection with labor-management relations, corporate campaigns, union negotiations, strikes, collective bargaining, and project labor agreements.

We also represent clients in litigation in specific international markets. From their home countries, our lawyers lead litigation matters and manage investigations involving discrimination, harassment, corporate whistleblowers, and data privacy issues. Our global employment lawyers work regularly on the most pressing employment-related issues, including noncompetition and trade secret cases, data privacy laws, and hiring and termination packages. We also handle related conciliation, mediation, and alternative dispute resolution.

Super-governmental bodies, such as the European Commission and International Monetary Fund, have a growing influence on employment laws. We monitor the evolution of workforce recommendations and counsel clients on how these recommendations influence trends or regulations in domestic markets. 

Our immigration team offers a combination of service and value. Employers who hire us receive:

• International resources and the highest service standards of a leading full-service international law firm
• Access to an integrated multioffice immigration team
• Focused attention of seasoned immigration practitioners
• Proficiency in key immigration-related services, including taxation, compliance, due diligence, and employment laws in worldwide jurisdictions
• Global reach and global visa capabilities
• Value-oriented fixed fees for most matters

From managing US and global immigration programs on a day-to-day basis to successfully addressing the sophisticated immigration issues that arise in major corporate transactions or reorganizations, our immigration team has the experience and resources to partner effectively with clients’ HR and global mobility teams. Our services include:

US Visas & Permanent Residence Services

• H-1B visas for temporary specialty workers
• L-1A and L-1B visas and Blanket L petitions for intracompany transferees
• E-1 and E-2 Treaty Investor and Trader visas
• O-1 Extraordinary Ability visas for scientists, researchers, and others
• Training visas
• TN-NAFTA visas for Canadians and Mexicans
• H-2B visas for temporary workers
• Consular processing of nonimmigrant and immigrant visas
• Labor certification
• Multinational managers and executives, extraordinary ability, and outstanding researchers visas
• National interest waivers

Global Immigration Services

• Experience with key countries around the world
• International employment law
• Program and policy development
• Keeping clients up to date about developments in immigration law

Immigration Compliance Services

• Due diligence for immigration aspects of corporate change
• Auditing and counsel during government investigations, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations
• I-9 compliance
• Corporate immigration policy development and implementation
• Social Security no-match counseling
• Training 

Knowing how to best compensate executives, balance compensation strategies across markets, and establish consistent employee benefit plans is essential to the effective management of a global workforce.

We advise clients on establishing, designing, managing, and adjusting every type of compensation and benefit program, including employee stock option plans (ESOPs), bonus plans, and other equity compensation arrangements. We also advise on the legal and practical ramifications of those plans, including the effects on taxation, securities laws, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), labor laws, corporate laws, and accounting considerations.

Coordinated workforce counsel during cross-border transactions is essential to getting the deal done well and navigating avoidable workforce issues. Our team provides seamlessly integrated transactional due diligence that encompasses labor, employment, benefits, immigration, and tax-related counsel. We regularly work with transactional teams regarding the workforce aspects of global restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, buyouts, outsourcings, joint ventures, public offerings, private equity investments, and company disposals.

Whether a client is involved in a complex global transaction or a corporate activity that involves only a handful of countries, our agile team has the resources necessary to meet that client’s needs. We are well versed in workforce integration issues, including advising on the legal implications of assimilating employees into the workforce; handling consultation and communication issues; managing uncertainty; counseling on the harmonization of terms and conditions, pensions and benefits, and employee retention issues; and managing fallout.

We advise clients on data protection, particularly in the context of maintaining cross-border compliance and implementing appropriate international transfer mechanisms. Our team also helps companies comply with workplace monitoring and investigations. In addition, we coordinate data protection due diligence and compliance projects, and provide follow-up management training.