Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Colombia
Costa Rica
Denmark
Dominican Republic
El Salvador
France
Germany
Guatemala
Honduras
Ireland
Italy
Mexico
Netherlands
Nicaragua
Norway
Panama
Poland
Portugal
Singapore
Spain
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States
Venezuela
We represent employers and business professionals in the process of petition for nonimmigrant visas to come work in the United States. We represent employers in petitions for L visas for intra-company transferees as managers and executives and H visas for professional skilled workers who are hired by our corporate clients. In addition to the petitioning process for nonimmigrant visas, we also provide counseling to our clients about their responsibilities on employment-related immigration issues. Our attorneys also advise and represent business professionals in adjusting their status to permanent resident.
Puerto Rico
Om Littler Puerto Rico
The Puerto Rico office was originally established in 1995 and has grown steadily, with an ever expanding base of corporate clients. We offer and emphasize the importance of preventive counseling and training, for which we maintain close communication with clients for consultation and advice before a matter reaches litigation, to minimize costs. We represent clients in all areas of labor and employment, employee benefits and general commercial and business litigation matters before all Puerto Rico administrative and judicial fora, provide seminars and training sessions for clients and business community groups, and also engage in all areas of practice in connection with traditional Labor Law. Our attorneys have experience achieving motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, and also routinely try cases to conclusion, at the trial and appellate levels in federal and Puerto Rico courts and administrative agencies.
Mennesker
Vores Rådgivning
Business Immigration
Civil & Commercial Litigation
Building upon the extensive litigation experience gained in the early years of practice, it became natural to expand from our original employment-related trial work, to include litigation in other aspects of our clients businesses, such as breach of contract actions, product liability, defamation, insurance coverage, dealer contracts, and torts, amongst others. Our attorneys possess significant legal skills and experience in civil matters, and we counsel our clients on the potential outcome of each litigation, its business consequences, as well as possible corrective measures.
Employee Benefits
Federal laws and regulations which govern employee benefits programs increase in complexity every year. When added to the demand of complying with all Puerto Rico laws and regulations, the need for the advice of an attorney fully dedicated to an employee benefits practice is unavoidable. We offer a complete range of services related to the design, structure, implementation, qualification, administration, and termination of all types of tax-qualified retirement and welfare benefits plans. In designing and structuring these plans, our attorneys draw on the experience gathered by our highly successful ERISA litigation team, to insure that all legal and procedural protections and defenses available to employers are incorporated into the plans. We also advise employers on the employee benefits aspects of key business transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, and severance plan-related issues.
ERISA & Employee Benefits Litigation
We are engaged in litigation of claims before Puerto Rico and federal courts under ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA and employee benefits in general. In addition, the ERISA litigation team assists the Employee Benefits Practice Group, by bringing our ERISA and Labor and Employment litigation experience to consulting in ERISA welfare plan development and design, in order to develop plan documents that will satisfy judicial scrutiny when faced with court claims by participants and beneficiaries.
Employment Law
We guide employers through the mine field laid by the interaction of myriad state statutes with federal laws and regulations, and the fact that Puerto Rico is not an employment at will jurisdiction. Training on termination, documentation, sexual harassment and discrimination preventive practices, employment litigation under all federal and state statutes, non-competition agreements, workers' compensation, counseling on matters relating to plant closings, downsizings and workforce restructurings, and unjust dismissal actions are but some of the areas in which we routinely work with management. We also help employers develop and implement employee relations' policies designed to minimize risk, assure compliance with statutes such as the FMLA and the ADA, and avoid costly and time consuming litigation. In the area of agency representation, we regularly appear before the EEOC and various state and local fair employment practice agencies in response to administrative charges of discrimination.
NLRA & Collective Bargaining
The labor movement in Puerto Rico has become much more active in recent years, and we are likewise increasingly involved in advising and assisting our clients with matters before the National Labor Relations Board. Practice group members have all participated in union campaigns and have all been lead negotiators of collective bargaining agreements. Our practice today encompasses training on union avoidance, running campaigns, collective bargaining, representing employers in matters such as unfair labor practices charges, representation hearings on unit appropriateness before the NLRB, post-election procedures such as challenged ballot issues and objections to conduct affecting the results of an election, withdrawal of recognition, joint and single employer issues, direct dealing and impasses in bargaining, amongst others.
Wage and Hour
Puerto Rico is regulated by multiple federal and Puerto Rico wage and hour laws and regulations. We routinely assist employers to assure compliance, including internal audits of payroll practices, compliance training for supervisors and preventive counseling. We also actively litigate individual and collective wage and hour class actions.
Vores Kontorer
Our Puerto Rico office represents management in employment discrimination cases before Federal and Puerto Rico courts, with its partners having represented clients in hundreds of cases alleging sex, age, religion, disability, race and national origin discrimination, amongst others, as well as sexual harassment complaints. Unfair dismissal, Workers' Compensation, ERISA, OSHA and Wage and Hours claims are also areas of litigation expertise for the firm.
All partners actively litigate, and associates are trained to do likewise, at the trial and appellate levels in federal and Puerto Rico courts, including the United States Courts of Appeals, and before federal and Puerto Rico administrative agencies. All local attorneys are fluent in both English and Spanish and routinely litigate in either language.
Our attorneys have counseling and litigation experience in National Labor Relations Act matters such as unfair labor practices charges, including related litigation before the National Labor Relations Board. They also represent clients in collective bargaining negotiations and arbitration.
The partners have also been active in litigation and counseling in the areas of product liability, Puerto Rico's Act 75 (Dealers' Contracts), breach of contract claims and defamation, among others.