Cross-Border

Often, a company’s employment issues are not isolated to one state, country, or region of the world. Our Cross-Border Practice Group helps clients with matters worldwide—whether involving a single non-U.S. jurisdiction or dozens. Our experienced employment attorneys based in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe facilitate our clients’ business growth by helping to harmonize global employment, HR, compensation, and data-protection needs in a cost-effective, solution-focused manner, as well as implementing strategic changes affecting the international workforce within and across borders.

We understand the challenges clients face managing competing business priorities, cultural issues, corporate initiatives, and risk in a global economy. Our services are structured to promote clients’ business models, helping them navigate the various, often-conflicting considerations that impact international staffing, such as tax, immigration, and corporate regulation. We will never overstaff a discussion or make clients do the legwork to conduct (or make sense of) multijurisdictional research. We are available in our clients’ time zones and on their terms—regardless of where they are in the world.

Global Employment Solutions

We offer strategic solutions to key challenges arising out of managing a global workforce, and we assist growing businesses undertaking international expansions and transactions for the first time. We assist our multinational clients with the full range of employment services designed to help drive consistent management practices worldwide. These include global codes of business ethics and employment handbooks, as well as their components, including:

Codes of conduct;
Anti-harassment, anti-bullying, and anti-discrimination policies;
Finance and sales policies;
Complaint reporting and investigation procedures compliant with the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, data privacy requirements throughout the world, international labor directives and conventions, and local laws worldwide;
Worldwide reductions-in-force and restructurings;
Global compensation plans, including sales incentives, commissions, and bonuses;
Benefits plans, such as severance policies;
Worldwide management training in ethics policy compliance, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliance, bullying, “moral harassment,” discrimination or sexual harassment, and investigation requirements; and
Contingent workforce management and staffing options during market exploration.

Mergers and Acquisitions

We understand the interplay between global corporate transactions and domestic labor and employment protections imposed by statute, case law, and contract. We facilitate cross-border transactions by:

Analyzing Transfer of Undertakings principles and quantifying the resulting transaction costs;
Advising on effective approaches to managing contractual rights and benefits in foreign employment agreements; and
Assisting with benefits and compensation migration, training, and integration.

Managing International Employment Issues and Disputes

Our multinational clients face a number of challenges managing employees. We help clients establish initial employment relations overseas with appropriate worker classifications and strategic risk-management advice. We assist in integrating local requirements and market practices related to employment contracts with our clients’ workforce practices and company cultures, and we enable clients to achieve business objectives when experiencing diverging viewpoints within the business. We also conduct works council and trade union negotiations and manage local litigation to ensure clients receive top-quality representation and passionate advocacy no matter where the proceeding is initiated.

Harmonizing Operations

Both parent company headquarters and subsidiaries in other countries face challenges in administering both global and local workforces. Some markets may have specific initiatives, conventions, labor entitlements, and benefits programs unfamiliar to the others. We help employers bridge these gaps, quantify the impact of various initiatives on local risk and cost models, and avoid unintended liability. In addition, our diverse, multilingual team is sophisticated in the nuances of local and regional laws and cultures worldwide, uniquely positioning us to advise a parent or subsidiary about employment law compliance in an affiliate’s location.

Facilitating a Mobile Workforce

As a cross-functional team of attorneys with experience in tax, immigration, benefits, and employment laws, we assist clients with all aspects of moving employees among operations. From creating expat packages to managing short-term relocations, from implementing contingent worker service agreements to establishing foreign subsidiaries, we manage these arrangements in a manner that protects clients’ interests and achieves their business objectives.