Eleanor Pelta is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Labor and Employment Practice. With her practice focused on immigration and nationality law, Ms. Pelta assists corporate clients in various industries with the international transfer of key personnel. She is particularly knowledgeable about managing high-volume employee transfers, as her background includes assisting employers in gaining temporary and permanent visas for all types of business, scientific and executive personnel. Additionally, she advises clients on strategic issues involving movement of staff internationally, including the use of blanket visa programs and qualification of companies as "treaty investor" or "treaty trader" entities.
Ms. Pelta provides further support on the immigration implications of corporate changes, including mergers and acquisitions, downsizing, reductions in force and salary level changes. Likewise, she has developed corporate immigration policies and procedures. Ms. Pelta counsels clients on employer obligations related to temporary transfers, employment eligibility verification and avoiding immigration-related unfair employment practices. She has also developed and performed nationwide I-9 compliance training for human resources personnel, and has assisted clients during I-9 and H-1B audits. In particular, Ms. Pelta frequently counsels tax and payroll managers regarding U.S. tax obligations of foreign nationals.
From Washington, D.C., Ms. Pelta is part of our cross-practice Global Workforce team that provides integrated cross-border advice, counseling, and strategic planning across the spectrum of labor, employment, benefits, and immigration issues.
Ms. Pelta received the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) 2014 Edith Lowenstein Award for Excellence in Advancing the Practice of Immigration Law, one of AILA’s highest annual honors. Established by AILA in 1980 to recognize outstanding immigration law practitioners, the award honors the memory of Edith Lowenstein, a pioneer in the practice of immigration and nationality law and a former president of AILA.
From 2007 through 2014, Chambers USA recognized Morgan Lewis as a leading firm for immigration law, based on the views of clients, peers and other industry professionals. From 2006 through 2014, Chambers ranked Ms. Pelta in Band 1, its highest honor, calling her "the backbone" of the firm's immigration practice and crediting her with "really driving the practice forward." Chambers has also noted that clients appreciate that Ms. Pelta "remembers every individual and knows their story" and praise her as "a tremendous resource, whose level of service is outstanding."
In 2013 and 2014, Who’s Who Legal listed Ms. Pelta among the International Who’s Who of Corporate Immigration Lawyers, and the publication named her one of the Most Highly Regarded Individuals among those lawyers.
Ms. Pelta helps clients think and work proactively by providing them with traditional compliance policy reviews and audits, case management and litigation technology and international executive travel and foreign resident worker visa processing.
Ms. Pelta is a contributing author to Getting the Deal Through — Labour and Employment, an annual series of deskbooks that provide international analysis in key areas of employment law and policy for corporate counsel, cross-border legal practitioners, and global team leaders. Ms. Pelta has authored feature chapters in Getting the Deal Through — Labour and Employment 2008–2010.
Ms. Pelta is also a prolific writer on Immigration issues. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.
