Bonnie Puckett

Bonnie Puckett leads the firm’s Asia-Pacific practice, advising on all types of cross-border and global employment matters within the Asia region and worldwide. Some of her major work includes preparing contracts, handbooks, and corporate policies designed for worldwide as well as country-specific use.

Bonnie develops business-practical solutions for employers confronting various international challenges from onboarding, to compensation structure, to performance management, to transactional diligence and post-transaction workforce integration, to reductions in force.

Guiding employers through international expansions and divestitures, Bonnie develops staffing solutions and helps clients manage costs and risks effectively, including those associated with tax, payroll, data, and employment-law compliance.

Bonnie counsels employers regarding protection of proprietary information, data privacy, and administering restrictive covenants worldwide, helping clients achieve and administer global procedures as well as local compliance.

Global mobility and expatriate workforce comprises a significant focus of Bonnie’s practice. She designs and executes customized global mobility programs and cross-border immigration risk profiling, and prepares all expatriate-related documentation including cross-border remote worker arrangements, assignment agreements, intercompany service agreements, expatriate packages and documentation, and tax equalization policies.

She regularly oversees outbound immigration matters, with extensive experience in Canada, China, and Hong Kong. Bonnie routinely helps clients navigate difficult issues and conflicting regulations involving border operations (in particular, Canada-U.S. and China-Hong Kong), and executives and sales employees with responsibility for multiple countries.

An experienced litigator, Bonnie helps clients resolve disputes involving current and former overseas employees, defending companies in complex United States-based litigation with international issues and providing strategic direction on litigation overseas in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines.

She advises on cross-border dispute resolution issues and procedural requirements, such as multi-country litigation, service of process in foreign jurisdictions, personal jurisdiction over foreign defendants and venue arguments, conflicts of law, and judgment enforcement. Bonnie has litigated state and federal wage-hour class and collective actions and discrimination lawsuits under statutes such as Title VII and the ADA.

Bonnie has extensive experience handling matters throughout the Asia-Pacific region, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia; her regular practice also involves Europe and the Middle East. Bonnie assists government contractors with staffing and mobility decisions involving an expatriate workforce in hazardous locations.

Bonnie writes and speaks regularly on workforce management in Asia, as well as other topics relevant to the global employer such as mobility, global compliance, international restrictive covenants, investigations, gender equality, contingent workforce issues, and data privacy.

Education:

• J.D., cum laude, University of Michigan Law School, December 2006
• B.A., magna cum laude, Linguistics, Cornell University, 2002

Admitted to Practice:

• Georgia
• Georgia Court of Appeals
• U.S. District Court, Middle, Northern and Southern Districts of Georgia
• U.S. District Court, Eastern and Southern Districts of New York

Experience:

In addition to regularly handling employee contracts, global and multi-country policies and handbooks, independent-contractor engagements, and terminations all over the world, Bonnie’s representative projects include:

• Managing multiple global and regional restructuring affecting employees based in various countries such as China, Japan, Korea, UK, Canada, France, Singapore, and the United States
• Drafting and implementing internal Rules of Employment required to be filed in countries such as Korea, Japan, and Taiwan
• Advising on litigation involving international employees in the United States, China, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Japan
• M&A due diligence in international acquisitions in Japan, China, Canada, and Ireland
• Preparing global compensation plans and advising on implementation, including required employee consultation processes

Professional Activities:

• American Bar Association (International and Labor & Employment Section)
• Georgia Bar Association
• Atlanta Bar Association
• Member, American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Region
• Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association