We provide seamless client service across national boundaries, guiding clients to understand and address cross-border complexities and adapt to the maze of employment laws, economic circumstances, customs and cultures throughout the world.
Littler’s unmatched global footprint and the quality and experience of our lawyers worldwide set us apart, allowing us to design and support crucial, strategic workplace solutions.
Your Strategic Partner
Labor and employment law issues have become as globalized as the world of business and commerce. Multinational employers are navigating numerous challenges simultaneously at both the local and global levels—from potential employment law changes to managing litigation risks to heightened pressure on environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. These developments come against a backdrop of ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainty, new regulatory risks and the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace.
Local Everywhere
Littler’s global team – comprised of more than 700 labor and employment attorneys with experience advising clients across the world – helps multinational clients maneuver large-scale employment law matters across borders. Our team acts as your partner anywhere in the world throughout the economic life cycle of your business, offering support to manage workforce issues, minimize litigation risks and guide compliance with local laws.
We help you address business challenges anywhere.
In addition to assisting clients in developing the framework to operate internationally with employees in various countries, we also assist in:
Developing and designing integrated, global workforce strategies.
Managing day-to-day HR issues at a global and local level.
Harmonizing policy development across borders, taking into account cultural and legal differences.
Preparing and reviewing expatriate employee and secondment programs, and assisting with global mobility issues.
Protecting corporate and brand reputation, including designing global ethics policies, conducting investigations and providing whistleblower advice.
Addressing international data protection issues and implementing global data privacy policies.
Drafting executive contracts, and advising on employee incentives schemes and worldwide benefits programs.
Advising on consultation obligations with Works Councils and employee representative bodies.
Setting global labor relations strategies, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, international labor standards and international framework agreements, and representing employers in international labor disputes.
Litigating and arbitrating cross-border employment claims.
Crafting multijurisdictional workforce reductions and handling corporate changes, including restructuring and insolvencies.
Developing and presenting multilingual management and employee training.
Experienced and Versatile Team
We know that local laws, customs and cultures influence how workplaces function and how employment issues are resolved. Our global approach, combined with the application of state-of-the-art technology, makes Littler a one-stop-shop of labor and employment services.
We are proud to have practitioners with significant experience in international employment. A number of our lawyers have served as in-house counsel for major international corporations, while others have practiced employment law in various countries. Still others have assisted companies with cross-border labor issues, including global labor relations matters, international compensation and benefits issues, multijurisdictional data privacy projects and global workforce reductions. In addition, our team frequently acts as the Adviser to the Employers’ Delegation at the annual International Labour Conference of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
We have offices all over the world with attorneys qualified to practice across Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Littler’s regional hubs assist our clients in projects both large and small.
Littler also partners with leading labor and employment attorneys in jurisdictions worldwide to provide clients global legal services with a single point of contact.
Advising on both overseas operations for the Fortune Global 500 and first international ventures for other companies.
We help you comply with local laws across all HR decisions, from recruiting and hiring employees (and transferring them across international borders), to performance development and training, disciplinary actions and terminations.
We are your trusted partner for all labor law matters – from collective bargaining to representing your interests with Global Union Federations or before the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We’ve done it all.
Your obligations to Works Councils or other employee representative bodies may be complex and unfamiliar. We help you comply with your information and consultation obligations.
We ensure your interests are protected, both at home and abroad. For multinational companies, we can defend employment-related claims that involve employees and evidence in multiple jurisdictions.
We help you employ workers where you need them – including by designing expatriate and secondment programs that address issues related to taxes, compensation, benefits and prerequisites for expatriate employees on international assignments.
We develop employment agreements across the globe, taking into account the differing requirements of local laws. Drafting employment contracts may be unfamiliar territory for U.S. employers, but it’s something we handle regularly.
From partnering with WhistleB to help create and support a whistleblowing reporting system used by companies across Europe, to managing investigations and drafting corporate codes of conduct, we can help you protect your corporate brand.
We guide you through the international data privacy landscape, ensuring compliance with local laws on data processing and transfers. We help you develop privacy policies and set up the legal structure for cross-border data transfers.
We help coordinate due diligence on an international scale for deals ranging from tens of millions to billions of U.S. dollars. We also cover workforce reductions, insolvencies and any of your corporate restructuring challenges.
The Littler Global Guide
The Littler Global Guide is an online portal that provides brief answers on a range of international employment and labor law issues. This format draws on Littler’s international practice and experience and enables users to drill down into one country’s law or compile a country-to-country comparison on a single topic.
In addition, Littler conducts conferences and a series of internationally focused webinars for our clients. These feature some of Littler’s top attorneys and a select group of employment lawyers from around the world to discuss the most pressing issues in international employment and labor law. Attendees say that these programs provide critical insights into global trends, as well as an informative introduction to legal concerns and workplace sensitivities before entering a new commercial market.
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