PERM Recruitment Channel Parity: Defending Sponsoring Employers Against IER Penalties and DOL Debarment

Grace Shie, Partner | Mayer Brown

Grace Shie leads Mayer Brown’s Global Mobility & Migration practice from Washington, DC. Her work includes advising multiple US employers on recruitment and compliance protocols that meet the requirements of PERM, the labor certification process for employment-based permanent residency, including the impact of layoffs on sponsorship and responses to PERM audits by the Department of Labor. For more than twenty years she has counseled multinational companies on cross-border employee mobility and on the strategic use of work permit and visa categories, representing clients from Fortune Global 500 firms to start-ups and new market entrants across financial services and banking, asset management and insurance, technology and communications, security and defense, engineering and manufacturing, life sciences, and retail.

• Education & Credentials

Grace earned her JD from Georgetown University Law Center and her BA from the University of California, Berkeley. She is admitted in the District of Columbia and Virginia and speaks Mandarin Chinese.

• Recognition & Leadership

She leads the firm’s Chambers-ranked Global Mobility & Migration practice and hosts The Inside Track, the firm’s executive briefing podcast on global mobility, immigration strategy, and worksite enforcement. Chambers USA has ranked her from 2019 through 2025, including Band 2 for DC Immigration in 2025. Her other recognitions include Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers (2026), Washingtonian’s Top Lawyers list for Immigration every year since 2017, Legal 500’s Next Generation Lawyer (2018–2025), The Best Lawyers in America for Immigration Law (2020–2024, 2027), Who’s Who Legal for Corporate Immigration (2019–2024), Human Resource Executive’s list of 40 Up-and-Comers among the nation’s most powerful employment attorneys (2019), and Law360’s Rising Star for Immigration (2017).

• Professional Involvement

Grace is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia. She serves on the board of the Children’s Law Center and on the editorial board of Global Mobility Lawyer.

• Experience

Her employer-side compliance work includes preparing employers for immigration audits and worksite enforcement actions and advising clients responding to government inspections, investigations, and audits, including FDNS audits in the United States, with post-audit support to remediate program and process defects. She represents financial services firms and banks on the full range of immigrant options for permanent residency sponsorship, including labor certification, and on nonimmigrant options such as OPT, H-1B, L-1, E, TN, and O-1. She advises on the intersection of immigration, employment, and tax considerations in cross-border staffing, and on succession issues for visa holders arising from mergers,
spin-offs, and reorganizations. Her recent publications include the firm’s September 17, 2026 Legal
Update on the Trump Administration’s new enforcement actions against employers in H-1B and PERM
fraud probes. Earlier in her career she spent five years in Hong Kong leading a top-ranked immigration
practice covering Greater China.

Arun G. Rao, Partner | Mayer Brown

Arun G. Rao helps clients navigate government investigations and criminal and civil enforcement actions, including fraud and consumer protection matters before the Department of Justice and other federal agencies, after a series of senior government positions. He most recently served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the US Department of Justice, overseeing the Department’s consumer protection matters. Earlier, as an Assistant US Attorney and Chief of the Southern Division of the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, he supervised and directly handled federal criminal cases involving immigration violations, public corruption, fraud and financial crimes, and national security.

• Education & Credentials

Arun earned his JD from New York University School of Law, where he served on the Moot Court Board
and won the Best Brief award in the Robert F. Wagner National Labor and Employment Law Moot Court
Competition, and his BA with high honors from the University of Virginia, where he was Phi Beta Kappa
and an Echols Scholar. He is admitted in the District of Columbia and New York and before the US Supreme
Court, the Fourth and Sixth Circuits, and federal district courts in Maryland, Tennessee, and New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

As the senior official responsible for DOJ’s Consumer Protection Branch, Arun led a period of expanded
enforcement that included multimillion-dollar civil penalty matters under the Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act and the first-ever criminal prosecutions of a
corporation and its executives for failure to report under the Consumer Product Safety Act. He testified
before Congress on DOJ enforcement efforts and served on the Deputy Attorney General’s Corporate
Crime Advisory Group and the Emerging Technology Board. He has also served in the White House
Counsel’s Office and as President of Investigative Group International.

• Professional Involvement

Arun is a member of Law360’s White Collar Editorial Advisory Board (2025) and a Barrister of the Edward
Bennett Williams Inn of Court in Washington, DC (2016–present). He served on the board of directors of
the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington DC Area (2017–2020) and was an
Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center (2017–2021), teaching Criminal Law and
an externship seminar.

• Experience

Arun brings more than 20 years of experience litigating and investigating complex criminal and civil
matters for financial services, technology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and consumer products
companies, universities, and elected officials and candidates. DOJ matters he supervised include United
States v. TikTok, et al. (COPPA), United States v. Family Dollar Stores LLC (corporate guilty plea and a
$41.675 million criminal penalty), the $150 million resolution in United States v. Twitter, and eBay’s $59
million agreement under the Controlled Substances Act. Before DOJ he was an Assistant District Attorney
in the New York County District Attorney’s Office, clerked for the Hon. Julia Smith Gibbons of the Sixth
Circuit, and practiced in the litigation department of a New York law firm. His recent publications include
the October 5, 2026 Legal Update on DOJ’s National Fraud Division corporate fraud enforcement
priorities.

Kelly B. Kramer, Partner | Mayer Brown

Kelly Kramer represents companies and individuals in high-stakes litigation, criminal cases, and government investigations, and counsels multinational companies on enforcement risks arising out of employment, immigration, and Customs matters. He has served as lead trial counsel in multi-week criminal trials, including against a former member of Congress and the president of one of the largest labor unions in the United States, and he conducts internal investigations for management consulting firms, private equity funds, pharmaceutical and telecommunications companies, defense contractors, media companies, and lobbying firms.

• Education & Credentials

Kelly earned his JD, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and his BA, cum laude, from The College of William & Mary. He is admitted in New York and the District of Columbia and before the Fourth, Seventh, Ninth, Federal, and District of Columbia Circuits, the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and the Southern District of New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Chambers USA recognizes Kelly for Litigation: White Collar Crime & Government Investigations in Washington, DC, and Washingtonian Magazine and Super Lawyers list him among the top white-collar defense lawyers in the city. Legal 500 has described him as a tenacious, meticulous, and strategic advocate.

• Professional Involvement

Kelly is a member of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section, the Edward Bennett Williams American Inn of Court, and The Barristers in Washington, DC. His profile highlights the book Securities Investigations: Internal, Civil and Criminal.

• Experience

Kelly’s enforcement work spans federal criminal, antitrust, and securities laws, including fraud, tax, cartel, and money laundering investigations and public corruption matters both domestic and under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He prevailed at trial and on appeal in a False Claims Act case involving evasion of the antidumping duty on butt-weld pipe fittings and secured dismissal of a False Claims Act suit against a Japanese company predicated on Customs fraud. In criminal antitrust he defended a health insurer in a market-allocation and no-poach investigation and secured a favorable plea agreement for a Korean transportation company. Much of his work is global: in 2009 he led the successful effort to dissolve USA PATRIOT Act restraining orders on a Cayman Islands hedge fund, and he led the Government of Brazil’s effort to secure US assistance in repatriating the Bahia Emerald. His recent publications include the firm’s Insights: Employment | Benefits | Mobility newsletter for Q3 2026 and the October 5, 2026 Legal Update on DOJ’s National Fraud Division enforcement priorities.

Morgan Bailey, Partner | Mayer Brown

Morgan Bailey practices global mobility and migration law in Mayer Brown’s Washington, DC office and is the former Deputy Chief of Staff at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security agency that administers the US naturalization and immigration system. Her most recent publication is the firm’s October 15, 2026 Legal Update on Department of Labor enforcement actions against employers in its H-1B and PERM fraud probe. At USCIS she served as special advisor to the Office of the Director on laws, proposed regulations, operations, and programs, managed the agency’s implementation of White House executive actions and proclamations, prepared senior officials for Congressional hearings, and analyzed legislative, regulatory, and policy proposals.

• Education & Credentials

Morgan earned her JD from Loyola Law School and an MAS from the University of Amsterdam. She is admitted in the District of Columbia and New York and works in English and Russian.

• Recognition & Leadership

At USCIS Morgan received a Special Act Award for extraordinary contributions and accomplishments, the USCIS Director’s Community Partnership Award, the International Operations Renaissance Award, and the Director’s Compass Award. Recent media coverage of her work includes reporting on the administration’s narrowing path for H-1B hiring (October 2, 2026) and on planned overhauls of employer sponsorship rules (July 6, 2026).

• Professional Involvement

Morgan serves on the Immigration Subcommittee and Working Group of the US Chamber of Commerce and contributes to The Mobile Workforce, the firm’s blog giving employers a direct line of sight into immigration policy-making and practice. Her listed engagements include a Mayer Brown-hosted AILA DC
Chapter event (November 5, 2025) and Freedom of Movement: AI, Borders, and the Global Mobility OS (October 6, 2026).

• Experience

At the USCIS Administrative Appeals Office Morgan oversaw the adjudication of appeals and worked on precedent and adopted decisions on employment-based matters. She served as Field Office Director in China at one of the agency’s largest and busiest international posts and as Acting Field Office Director in Kenya, overseeing USCIS operations in East and Central Africa, and she conducted refugee processing in Kenya, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mainland China, and Hong Kong. Earlier in her career she practiced at law firms in New York City and Washington, DC, clerked for a federal judge, and worked for the Department of State at the US Embassy in Moscow.

Maximillian L. Del Rey, Partner | Mayer Brown

Maximillian L. Del Rey is a Global Mobility & Migration partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington, DC office whose practice centers on US immigration regulatory enforcement and compliance. He guides employers preparing for government investigations, conducts risk reviews and audits of key compliance files, and assists with internal investigations and with investigations in furtherance of Department of Justice, DHS, and DOL immigration-related inquiries and enforcement proceedings. His complex-case work includes labor certification alongside H-1B, L-1, TN, J-1, F-1, and multinational manager matters, and he co-authored the firm’s September 17, 2026 Legal Update on new enforcement actions against employers in H-1B and PERM fraud probes.

• Education & Credentials

Max earned his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his BA from the University of Southern California. He is admitted in California and the District of Columbia and before the US District Courts for the Central and Northern Districts of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Max is Co-Chair of Mayer Brown’s Mentorship Committee, a member of its Recruiting Committee, Co-Chair of the Asian American Pacific Islander affinity group for the Washington, DC office, and a member of the office’s Pro Bono Committee. He is also a member of the firm’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice.

• Professional Involvement

Max is Co-Chair of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) Immigration Committee. His listed presentations include the Society for Human Resource Management 2025 Annual Conference and Expo and a program on sponsoring foreign workers for green cards and the top ten issues for employers to validate following a $14.25 million financial settlement.

• Experience

Max’s enforcement and compliance work includes enterprise-level development of immigration policy and systems for clients, managing immigration compliance priorities through mergers and acquisitions, and advising on strategy for terminations and reductions in force and on federal, state, and local non-discrimination laws. He manages the practice’s preparation of the full spectrum of US immigration benefit requests to the Department of State, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Homeland Security, including USCIS, CBP, and ICE, and he handles O-1 and EB-1A extraordinary ability petitions, EB-1B outstanding researcher petitions, and National Interest Waiver petitions. He represents large multinational companies as well as startups, small and mid-size corporations, and individuals.

SESSION 1 – Defending a PERM Recruitment Inquiry From IER, EEOC, and the Labor Department | Morgan Bailey, Grace Shie & Maximillian L. Del Rey & Arun G. Rao & Kelly B. Kramer | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session shows business immigration attorneys how to defend a sponsoring employer when IER, the EEOC, or DOL opens an inquiry into PERM recruitment channels. We will walk through the first 30 days, the parity production built before any raw file goes out, pricing exposure from the OpenAI/Statsig, Cloudera, and Instacart settlements, and the withdraw-or-litigate call after Cloudera’s debarment. Drawing on employer-side defense of these matters, we cover what only practice shows: what IER’s first request asks for, how back-pay pools get sized, and what moves the penalty number.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Rebuilding PERM Intake to Match Standard Hiring and Triaging Files Already Recruited | Morgan Bailey, Grace Shie & Maximillian L. Del Rey & Arun G. Rao & Kelly B. Kramer | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session shows employer-side business immigration counsel how to rebuild PERM intake so PERM roles run through the same career site, ATS, screener, and response time as standard hiring. The speakers also cover triaging pending files recruited under old practices against a roughly 336-day queue and Cloudera’s withdrawal-based debarment clock, drawing on experience auditing real PERM programs, working through SWA job-order defaults, and making withdraw-or-hold calls on live files since the 2025–2026 IER settlements.