Business Immigration

The Vedder Price Business Immigration group counsels international companies with regard to all aspects of business-related immigration laws. Our clients include major international corporations such as Daimler AG; The Tata Group; Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc.; Bank of Ireland; Union Bank, N.A.; Bally Total Fitness Corporation; Avon Products Inc.; Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc.; Dyson, Inc.; and Rush University Medical Center.

Building on the firm’s vast experience in corporate compliance and best practices, we work with clients to develop policies and internal processes to ensure compliance with federal-level and state-level immigration laws and minimize exposure to civil and criminal immigration enforcement. We provide proactive advice to best position a company and its workforce before and after corporate changes, including acquisitions, mergers, divestitures and reorganizations. The firm also assists clients in obtaining temporary and permanent immigration status for their executive, managerial and professional employees in virtually every visa category. Together with the firm’s tax, benefits, executive compensation, estate planning and employment lawyers, we help clients develop and serve their global workforce.

Specific services include:

• Determining and applying for the most appropriate visa categories for individuals who intend to stay temporarily in the United States for employment or other business-related reasons, including:

1. Persons to be employed in professional positions, as well as persons of extraordinary ability and achievement in business, the arts, science, education, medicine or sports (H-1B, TN, O and P categories).
2. Executives, supervisors and employees essential to establishing and managing foreign-owned companies in the United States (E-1 and E-2 categories).
3. Intracompany transferees from the same or related entities abroad who will be employed as executives, managers or employees with specialized knowledge (L-1 category).
4. Company employees coming briefly to the United States to attend meetings, negotiate contracts or attend seminars or conferences (B-1 category).
5. Trainees, interns and students who may receive remuneration during their training in the United States (H-3, J-1 and F-1 categories).

• Preparation and processing of permanent resident visas for executives and other professional employees, including:

1. Priority Workers (multinational executives and managers, outstanding professors and researchers, and persons of extraordinary ability in their field).
2. Members of the professions holding advanced degrees and persons of exceptional ability in the arts, sciences or business, including those eligible for national interest waivers and those requiring labor certification.
3. Skilled workers, professionals and other workers generally requiring labor certification (certification from the US Department of Labor stating that there are no available US workers for these positions).
4. Investors who make a substantial investment in a commercial enterprise that will employ US citizens or lawful permanent residents. 

• Due diligence regarding immigration law issues in corporate mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other forms of corporate reorganization.
• Counseling employers regarding compliance with immigration laws in order to avoid civil and criminal penalties. Specific services include:

1. Establishing internal corporate immigration policies.
2. Providing regular training to clients regarding current legal requirements, I-9 forms, document retention and hiring practices.
3. Conducting I-9 audits for employers and advising employers on how to handle government audits and investigations by the government, including mitigation of damages.

• Advising clients as to the effects of a RIF on foreign employees.
• Assisting in processing visa applications and resolving other State Department matters in US Embassies and Consulates around the world.
• Counseling employers with regard to their non-US immigration needs directly and through our network of attorneys licensed in other countries.

Gabrielle M. Buckley is a Shareholder and leads the firm's Business Immigration practice group. Ms. Buckley is a past chair of the International Bar Association's Immigration and Nationality Law Committee. She serves on the American Bar Association’s 13-member Commission on Immigration and is former cochair of the Immigration & Nationality Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of International Law. Ms. Buckley is Vice Chair of the American Bar Association's Section of International Law and is a member of its Council and Executive Committee.

Ms. Buckley has over 25 years of experience representing multinational and US organizations in connection with their business immigration matters. She advises employers as to immigration law issues arising in corporate mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and other forms of corporate reorganization. Ms. Buckley assists clients in obtaining temporary and permanent immigration status in virtually every immigration category. She develops immigration compliance policies for employers and conducts internal immigration/I-9 audits and training for employers. Ms. Buckley also represents foreign direct investors in selecting appropriate investment vehicles and obtaining investor visas. She is conversant in Japanese. 

Bradley A. Richards is an Associate in the firm's Business Immigration practice group. Representing corporate clients in a variety of industries, Mr. Richards focuses his practice on all aspects of US immigration law. His experience includes employment-based nonimmigrant visa petitions, immigrant petitions, adjustment of status applications and PERM applications.

Mr. Richards attended the University of Notre Dame and received his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. While attending law school, he served as the school's Community Service Organizer, was on the board of the school's Public Interest Law Society, interned at the Cook County Public Defender's Office and clerked for Cabrini Green Legal Aid's criminal law attorney. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Richards was employed with a major health care consutling firm.

Steven P. Cohn is an attorney in the Labor and Employment practice area. Mr. Cohn concentrates his practice in the area of labor and employment, with a particular emphasis in international law. Specifically, on a global scale, he provides advice and counsel to human resource executives and corporate management concerning international labor and employment law and global migration issues.

Before his affiliation with Vedder Price, Mr. Cohn served as Managing Counsel of Global Labor and Employment Law for McDonald’s Corporation. In this role, he was responsible for managing and resolving a variety of labor and employment issues in over 100 countries and led the human resources and employee relations due diligence processes for the company’s expansion into more than 15 countries. Mr. Cohn’s experience includes the defense of union organizing attempts in multiple jurisdictions, the development of compliant wage systems in countries with unique legal structures, such as China, the hiring and management of local counsel throughout the world and the establishment of immigration compliance systems on a worldwide basis.

Sarah R. Breitlander is a litigator with the firm. Prior to her entry into private practice in 2008, Ms. Breitlander served as law clerk to the Honorable Anne M. Burke while Justice Burke served on the Illinois Appellate Court, First District. Ms. Breitlander has also served as judicial extern to the late James H. Alesia and the Honorable Robert W. Gettleman, both district court judges for the Northern District of Illinois.

Ms. Breitlander is an active member of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA), where she serves as Chair of the Commercial Litigation Committee, and the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI), where she sits on the WBAI’s Executive Board of Directors and serves as Editor-in-Chief of WBAI publications.

In law school, Ms. Breitlander was a member of The John Marshall Law Review and received the Fred F. Herzog Scholarship Award, the Edith and Philip Baim Scholarship Award and the Dean’s Scholarship for Academic Achievement.

Ms. Breitlander was selected for inclusion from 2009 to 2011 in Illinois Rising Stars.

Anita M. Benditzson is an immigration paralegal. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993 from Washington University in St. Louis, where she majored in Psychology, with a minor in Jewish and Near Eastern Studies. Ms. Benditzson has over 15 years of immigration experience. She is bilingual in English and Hebrew.

Susan A. Rubeor is an immigration and expatriate paralegal. Ms. Rubeor graduated from Aquinas College in 1994 with a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and is a certified Global Mobility Specialist™. She has over 13 years of experience in immigration and expatriate matters. Ms. Rubeor focuses on employment immigration filings and expatriate visas. She facilitates ongoing education for Business Partners, foreign nationals and clients on various immigration/expat topics and current developments. She develops and manages partnerships with international counsel, foreign consulates and US Embassies. Ms. Rubeor supports clients with international employee relocation programs and global placement. Additionally, she has traveled internationally, recruiting and processing professionals for employment in shortage occupations in the United States.

S. Tiffany Kwak is an immigration paralegal. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in Classical Studies from the University of Chicago. She has experience in both employment-based and family-based immigration cases. Ms. Kwak is bilingual in English and Korean.

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