Contractors, Staffing and Contingent Workers

Employers around the world and across industries are increasingly turning to staffing firms, professional employer organizers (PEOs), employers of record (EORs), workplace platform providers, contractors, and contingent workers for flexibility amid seismic cultural and technological changes. Yet as the options for engaging workers expand, so do the risks relating to joint employer liability and increased enforcement around misclassification in the U.S., EU, and other key jurisdictions.

As the world’s leading employment and labor law firm, Littler represents many of the largest and most well-known staffing firms, professional employer organizations (PEOs), and employee leasing companies—along with the employers who use these services, from innovative startups to Fortune 50 companies.

Leveraging the strength of Littler’s global platform, our team handles the full spectrum of legal issues involving contractors and contingent workers, helping employers proactively address risk and solve problems to keep their organizations running smoothly.

Strategic Advice on Your Contingent Workforce

Business decisions involving independent contractors and contingent workers touch nearly every area of employment law and can have a dramatic impact across an organization. Our team works with senior leaders to guide decision-making from the very start, providing tailored advice through an understanding of each client’s workforce needs and long-term business goals.

With a unique depth of experience and insight into the various options for engaging third-party workers, we help businesses weigh the associated risks and benefits and make informed decisions about workforce solutions. As regulations around independent contractors and contingent workers continue to shift, we also help buyers, providers, and facilitators of flexible workforces remain compliant and avoid liability.

Our Full-Service Capabilities

Whether you have a well-established external workforce program or need to build one from scratch, our team can assist with:

• Workforce design and implementation: We work with clients on initial workforce design, including developing contracts and master service agreements, and provide ongoing strategic counsel to maintain the distinction between employees and contractors.
   
• Risk assessment: Our team frequently conducts legal risk assessments of business staffing options, examining issues specific to our clients’ contractual relationships, policies and processes, and the jurisdictions in which they operate.
   
• High-profile litigation: We litigate and consult on some of the most meaningful class-action independent contractor misclassification lawsuits and disputes in virtually every court and administrative, arbitral, and tax venue—often with tens of millions of dollars at stake.
   
• Classification audits: We routinely conduct independent contractor audits and provide counsel on worker classification issues to multinational organizations with thousands of workers in a range of industries, including healthcare, entertainment, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, energy, and transportation.
   
• Staying ahead of staffing law changes: Through Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute^®, we not only track state and federal developments in staffing law, but also actively participate in the process by advocating for management-friendly policies before lawmakers and regulators.
   
• Licensing and registration requirements: We help set up staffing firms, direct placement firms, and PEOs, and regularly advise on state licensing and registration requirements.
   
• Global reach: With over 100 offices around the world, we can advise on even the most complex multijurisdictional staffing issues. Our global team regularly manages cross-border staffing projects, including companies bringing on talent from other countries through an EOR or otherwise engaging overseas contractors.

 
“Independent contractors and contingent workers, while immensely valuable, often give rise to a host of thorny legal, cultural, and operational questions for organizations. Proactively addressing these issues with the help of experienced, knowledgeable counsel can help organizations set themselves up for success and avoid costly litigation.”
– Rachel Fendell Satinsky and Josh Waltman, Co-Chairs, Contractors, Staffing and Contingent Workers Practice Group
 

“In an increasingly interconnected global workforce, employers taking advantage of flexible talent across borders and time zones should work with similarly global advisors to remain compliant with evolving staffing laws and regulations across jurisdictions.”
– Michael R. Gotzler, Co-Chair, Contractors, Staffing and Contingent Workers Practice Group