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.

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

• 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
• Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce, Albany, New York, Legal Aspects of International Business, September 16, 2008
• NYS Personnel Council, HR Academy, Albany, New York, Employment Eligibility Verification: The New I-9 Form and Other Puzzles, April 25, 2008
• Chief Executives Network Manufacturing, Albany, New York, Employment Eligibility Verification: The New I-9 Form and Other Puzzles, April 24, 2008
• NYS Dept. of Labor Job Service Employer Committee (JESC), Saratoga Springs, New York, Negotiating the Immigration Maze: Hiring Workers Despite Dead-Ends, March 26, 2008
• Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), Sofia, Bulgaria, Understanding the Boilerplate in U.S. Agency and Distribution Agreements, March 14, 2008
• State University of New York at Albany, Immigration 2008-Basics of the Maze, March 7, 2008
• NYS Department of Labor Job Service Employer Committee (JSEC) – Saratoga Adirondack Chapter, Negotiating the Immigration Maze: Hiring Workers Despite Dead-Ends, October 4, 2007
• Union Internationale des Avocats, Budapest, Hungary, Understanding the Boilerplate in U.S. Agency and Distribution Agreements, June 1, 2007
• League of Women Voters, Delmar, New York, Immigration 2007: A View from the Trenches, May 24, 2007
• NYS Empire State Economic Development/Export NY, Plattsburgh, New York, Legal Aspects of International Business or Avoiding Major Mistakes by Neophyte International Businesses, December 8, 2006
• New York Farm Bureau, 2006 Annual Convention, Albany, New York, Visa Alternatives for Agriculture: Getting the Workers You Need – Legally, December 6, 2006
• Plattsburgh North Country Chamber of Commerce, Plattsburgh, New York, Exporting: Finding Paths Around the Pitfalls, June 22, 2006

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 (scheduled 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
Global Business Network: (Executive Board 1991-1997, President 1993-1995)
German-American Law Association
International Bar Association
Union Internationale des Avocats: Secretary, Contract Law Commission
International Distribution Institute, Turin, Italy: U.S. Expert for Agency & Distribution Issues