Practice Experience
Donald C. Dowling, Jr. concentrates his practice on cross-border human resources law issues for multinational employers.
Mr. Dowling is one of two lawyers in the US ranked in the top tier (“Leading”) in the only competitive ranking of international labor/employment lawyers, London-based PLC , and he is ranked by Chambers as one of the top 36 Labor & Employment lawyers in New York.
Multinationals globalizing their business operations increasingly need to align certain aspects of employment law compliance across borders, and Don has over 15 years of experience managing multiple-jurisdiction employment law compliance initiatives, such as:
- Global handbooks, codes of conduct, hotlines and HR policies
- Cross-border compensation, benefits, equity and incentive plans
- Employment law issues in international reductions-in-force and restructurings
- HR issues in international mergers/acquisitions/divestitures
(due diligence, "acquired rights," post-merger HR integration)
- Expatriate and "secondment" arrangements and terminations
- "Offshoring," overseas "sweatshop" work conditions and international trade union/work council matters
- Data privacy laws affecting global Human Resources Information Systems [HRIS] and other cross-border HR data transmissions
Working daily with White & Case’s global team of employment lawyers, Mr. Dowling advises multinational headquarters on cross-border solutions to specific international employment law compliance challenges. Recent client matters he handled for multinational employers include:
- Drafting global codes of conduct and HR policies on topics from discrimination to electronic communications to video surveillance
- Structuring global Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower hotlines and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act reporting procedures
- Preparing global sales commission plans, global executive retention bonus plans and global equity/restricted stock plans
- Restructuring international workforces, including international reductions-in-force, independent-contractor-to-employee conversions, and M&A-context executive transfers
- Harmonizing executive employment and independent contractor agreements across borders
- Coordinating local data privacy agency filings for global HRIS
- Issuing globally aligned crisis preparations (such as for terrorism and swine flu pandemic)
- Launching aligned local-country procedures for specific global HR initiatives, such as global pre-employment tests, background checks, workplace video surveillance, and wage/hour compliance
- Ensuring expatriate "secondment" contracts and expatriate severance releases comply with relevant laws
Before joining White & Case, Mr. Dowling was International Employment Counsel at a major New York-based international law firm. Before that, he served in Paris as in-house International Employment Counsel for a Fortune 500 company. He had previously been International Employment Law Consultant in the Chicago area at Hewitt Associates (the international consulting firm), partner at a major Cincinnati law firm (where he chaired the firm’s International Law Practice Group), and associate in the labor/employment department of a different Cincinnati law firm.
Bars and Courts
Ohio State Bar, 1985
Illinois State Bar, 2000
New York State Bar, 2006
US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio
Education
JD, University of Florida, Order of the Coif, 1985 AB, University of Chicago, 1982
Professional Associations and Memberships
Founder and Chair, XBHR (multidisciplinary international HR organization) Member: International Bar Association; Society for Human Resources Management Co-Chair, New York State Bar Association International Employment Law Committee Past Chair, American Bar Association International Employment Law Committee Past Council Member and Officer, ABA Section of International Law Past Chair, International Law Committees of Chicago and Cincinnati Bar Associations
Awards and Recognition
Ranked for Labor & Employment: New York in Chambers USA 2009 and 2010
Ranked for US Labor & Employment (Workplace and Employment Counseling) in Legal 500 2010
Ranked "Leading" international labor/employment lawyer in PLC Which lawyer? (listed as one of the two international labor/employment lawyers in top category in the US)
Publications and Speaking Engagements
Co-editor of International Employment Law: The Multinational Employer and the Global Workforce treatise, Transnational Pub., 2000
Author of many treatise chapters on aspects of international employment law, including chapters published in: Corporate Compliance Practice Guide (LEXIS/Matthew Bender); International Labor & Employment Law (Aspatore); International Lawyer's Deskbook (ABA); The Law of Transnational Legal Transactions (Clark Boardman); PLC Labour & Employee Benefits; PLI 34th Institute on Employment Law; and two PLI chapters on "International Privacy Law"
Author of many law review articles on international employment law, including articles published in: Cornell International Law Journal; Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business; The International Lawyer (ABA); The Labor Lawyer (ABA); DePaul Business Law Journal; Privacy & Data Security Law Journal
Author of many magazine and newspaper articles on international employment law, including articles published in: Business Mexico; HR Adviser; National Law Journal; New York Law Journal GC New Yorker
Author of a regular column in International HR Journal (Thomson/West), and an annual chapter in Employment Law Update (Wolters Kluwer)
Senior Editor of International Labor & Employment Laws, ABA/BNA treatise series
Member of the Advisory Board of EuroWatch newsletter (Thomson Reuters), and of the Advisory Board of International HR Journal (Thomson Reuters/West)
Personally profiled in The New York Times Business Section, Feb. 24, 2004, and twice in CCH Labor Law Insight, June 2006 and April 1994
Chaired multiday seminars on international employment law in Austria, England and New York, and delivered presentations on international employment law in cities across the US and in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico (presentations in Spanish), Malawi, the Netherlands and Spain
Adjunct Professor of Law having taught "International Employment Law" and "European Union Law" at three law schools, including a law program in Italy
Languages
English Spanish French
Citizenship
United States
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