Leslie Thiele, partner, joined Whiteman Osterman & Hanna in 1992 as one of the founders of the International Trade and Business Practice Group. She leads the Firm’s Immigration Practice Group.

Her practice is concentrated in the areas of international business transactions, international trade, and business-related immigration matters. She also spent four years as an executive with an international trade and development consulting company in Philadelphia, advising domestic and foreign businesses on international investment and personnel transfer issues. She is fluent in German.

Representative Accomplishments

• Numerous successful immigration cases for international investors as well as for outstanding researchers, aliens of extraordinary ability, and other professionals. Expanded the legal grounds for a "national interest waiver" of the labor certification requirement in an immigration case for a physician.
• Drafting and negotiation of agency and distribution agreements for U.S. and foreign companies seeking sales and distribution channels overseas.
• Negotiation of international joint ventures and licenses for the commercialization of U.S. technologies or manufacture of licensed products.
• Establishment of overseas business operations for small and medium-sized U.S. companies in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Representative Speeches and Presentations

• Center for Economic Growth, Albany, New York, Expert New York Program, Legal Aspects of International Business, May 14, 2010
• International Distribution Institute, Barcelona, Spain, The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Issues for International Distributors, June 12, 2009
• NYS Personnel Council HR Academy, Albany, New York, Employment Eligibility Verification: Yet Another New I-9 Form, May 12, 2009
• Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), Atlanta, Georgia, Protecting Distributors and Agents Under U.S. Law, May 1, 2009

Recent Publications

• Co-Author: “Residence in the United States Through Investment: Reality or Chimera,” 3 Albany Government
  Law Review 103 (2010)
• “The ‘Accidental Franchisee’ Under U.S. Law”, 3 JURISTE 35 (July 2009)(Union Internationale des Avocats)
• "Investment and Trade: E Visas”, Business Immigration Law: Strategies for Employing Foreign Nationals (Malpert & Petersen, eds., Law Journal Press 2000-2009)
• “Avoiding Citizenship Discrimination in the Hiring Process,” 24 Labor & Employment Law Section Law Newsletter 29 (March 1999)

Memberships

• American Bar Association, International Law Section, Export Controls & Economic Sanctions Committee
• American Immigration Lawyers Association
• International Bar Association
• Union Internationale des Avocats: Secretary, Contract Law Commission
• U.S. Expert for Agency & Distribution Issues, International Distribution Institute, Turin, Italy