Elizabeth Espin Stern is the managing partner and head of the Global Immigration & Mobility Practice Group in the Firm’s Washington, DC office. She has 25 years of experience advising on US and global immigration, HR and mobility services, and is consistently ranked as a leading business immigration lawyer by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Who's Who Legal, The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, and national and local publications. Ms. Stern regularly speaks and writes about global migration policies and contributes to major news agencies and publications, including Legal Times and Global Employer.

Practice Focus

Ms. Stern advises multinational companies in a variety of sectors including financial services, IT, defense, telecommunications and multimedia. Focusing on issues that are unique to dynamic commercial entities with a global work force, she helps companies establish global compliance and management programs to move their executive and professional work corps to various locations around the world. Ms. Stern is knowledgeable in global HR disciplines and transactions, including visas, work permits and compliance and how immigration transactions interface with tax, employment, compensation and benefits, corporate formation, data privacy, export controls, and anti-corruption and anti-bribery regulation.

Representative Legal Matters

• Advising multiple companies on the impact of export control, FCPA, and data protection regulations on their immigration and mobility programs.
• Representing a global financial services organization in reductions in force impacting a substantial percentage of the work force and including the organization's visa holders and residency candidates.
• Advising a financial services company on the compliance requirements to maintain the visa and work authorization for global workers encompassed by the company’s acquisition of new entities.
• Developing the strategies for mobility of global pools of professional workers for a global IT company to meet the company’s staffing demands in locations throughout EMEA, Asia Pacific and the Americas.
• Leading the global team managing a defense supplier's global migration program, coordinating the immigration requirements in multiple countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Taiwan and United Kingdom, and securing work authorization for assignees pursuant to government and commercial services agreements.
• Counseled a government agency on the creation of a training program to facilitate international exchanges with similar entities around the world.
• Counseled a major transportation corporation on immigration and employment compliance to prepare for its Congressional hearing on a multibillion dollar funding bill.

Professional Associations and Memberships

• American Bar Association - Fellow
• District of Columbia Bar
• Virginia State Bar Association
• American Immigration Lawyers Association
• Society for Human Resource Management
• United States Chamber of Commerce - Labor & Immigration
• Atlantic Council
• Tech America

Admission

District of Columbia~United States (1988)
U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit~United States (1987)
Virginia~United States (1986)
Supreme Court of Virginia~United States (1986)

Education

University of Virginia School of Law  (J.D.) (1986)
University of Virginia  (B.A. magna cum laude) (1983)