We understand how challenging it can be for law firms and their HR teams to keep up-to-date with all the changes in immigration law which impact existing and future workers. It is even more important for law firms since they are under stricter regulatory duties.
We provide a full range of services to our law firm clients from submitting sponsor licence applications as well as immigration applications, reviewing HR policies and systems, helping to stay compliant under the points-based system, to briefing a new Authorising Officer and advising on prevention of illegal working.
You may also require strategic advice for your associates and partners who wish to eventually settle in the UK with their families. We can, as far as possible, minimise the risks and help them to steer a path through the immigration rules to achieve their ultimate goal of settlement and British nationality.
Businesses, particularly law firms, are never static, so when you need legal advice in other areas, perhaps following a merger or acquisition, or a TUPE transfer, not only can we advise on the sponsor licensing reporting requirements, but as a full-service law firm, we can also involve our colleagues working in employment or corporate law, for example, to provide you with complementary advice and a seamless service.
We also assist British lawyers who travel and advise clients based in Europe to understand which business activities they can undertake in each different jurisdiction and whether work permission is required, considering the EU-UK Trade and Corporation Agreement.
Recent examples of work
- Acting for a global law firm in respect of their UK immigration needs, including the transfer of senior staff, a strategy to bring specialists into the UK as well as trainees and interns under internship programmes.
- Advising an international law firm on permitted activities for visitors in the UK under the business category and managing its inbound and outbound immigration needs.
- Advising on a sponsored lawyer going on secondment to a client site.
- Guiding a law firm on the implications of a senior individual’s status during an ongoing disciplinary investigation, in association with our colleagues in the regulatory and employment departments.
- Advising on a sponsored lawyer asked to go on international secondment in relation to their future eligibility for settlement and British citizenship.
- Advising a high-profile partner on the most suitable visa option for them and their family following a departure from their current firm, considering their tax implications and their family’s specific circumstances.
- Advising in relation to a sponsored worker who became a partner in the law firm.
- Assisting a law firm with the prevention of illegal working obligations following a lapse in a senior lawyer’s visa and potential implications for the law firm.
- Advising an attorney on the implications of seeking entry to the UK as a visitor after receiving a custodial sentence.
For more information about our immigration services please contact Ilda de Sousa, Robert Houchill or Emma Dauriac.
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