Lavanga V. Wijekoon

Lavanga V. Wijekoon has experience representing employers in a wide range of labor and employment class action and single-plaintiff matters, involving such as issues as:

• Discrimination
• Harassment
• Retaliation
• Wage and hour
• Misclassification
• Employment contracts
• Independent contractors
• Wage garnishments

Lavanga handles district and appellate level actions in state and federal courts and before agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR), and the Illinois Human Rights Commission (IHRC). 

Lavanga also provides strategic advice and counsel to multinational employers on a wide range of international employment and compliance matters, including such areas as:

• Global mobility programs and expatriate workforces
• The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
• Labor obligations under free trade agreements
• Multi-country and international surveys on employment laws and practices
• Global codes of conduct and international policies
• Global independent contractors
• The employment cycle including applications, interviewing, hiring, discipline, promotions, demotions, recordkeeping and terminations

Lavanga is a member of Littler's Pro Bono Committee and has an active pro bono practice in which he represents clients in asylum petitions before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and immigration courts.  He has also represented numerous “Dreamer” clients in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals petitions. 

Prior to joining Littler, Lavanga was an associate at an international law firm in Chicago. He also served as a law clerk to Hon. Marywave Van Deren of the Washington State Court of Appeals and as an extern to Hon. Marsha J. Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

While in law school, he served as an editor for the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal and as a member of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court team. He was awarded grants to conduct field research on human trafficking in India and Nepal.