Partner

Managing Partner of Washington DC Office

Elizabeth (Liz) Espín Stern

Employment & Benefits, Global Mobility & Migration, National Security

"Liz is a brand name in this business and is clearly a top player."
Chambers USA

Overview

Elizabeth Espín Stern, managing partner of Mayer Brown's Washington DC office and a former member of the firm’s Partnership Board, leads Mayer Brown’s Global Mobility & Migration practice, within the Employment & Benefits group. She is a seasoned veteran who has advised companies through every major immigration policy change since 1986. Liz 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. She is in Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame” for Immigration (2020-2022) as well as Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers and a recipient of the National Law Journal’s Immigration Trailblazer award (2018) and its Crisis Leadership Trailblazer award (2020). Liz has been recognized by Corporate Counsel’s 2021 Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards for “Innovative Leadership,” awarded Washingtonian’s “Lawyer Lifetime Achievement” for Immigration, named as one of the “Top 10 Most Innovative Legal Practitioners” by the Financial Times (2020) and received the “Women Who Mean Business” award from the Washington Business Journal." She has also been named a Mayer Brown Diversity Champion.

Experience

  • Advising multiple companies on best practices to establish a managed services program to oversee the hiring and mobility of talent across borders, the required employment, benefits and immigration processes to optimize the program and the impact of export control, FCPA, and data protection regulations on their immigration and mobility programs.
  • Representing the targets of government investigations for immigration compliance, including with regard to visa fraud, vendor management, and identity and work authorization practices.
  • Representing multiple global financial services organizations 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.

Education

  • University of Virginia School of Law, JD
  • University of Virginia, BA, magna cum laude

Admissions

  • District of Columbia
  • Virginia

Courts

  • US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  • Supreme Court of Virginia

Languages

  • Spanish

Professional & Community Involvement

  • New American Leaders Project (NALP), Former Member of the Board of Advisors
  • 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
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