Janine Guzmán

Partner

US-LatAm Practice Group Regional Co-Leader, Employment

Emailjanine.guzman@us.dlapiper.com

About

With over 35 years of experience, Janine Guzmán has represented corporate clients in complex labor and employment matters including hiring, wage and hour, statutory licenses and employee benefits, performance, discipline and termination, business restructurings, reductions in force and relocations, drug testing programs, discrimination, sexual harassment, workplace harassment, affirmative action, domestic violence, employee privacy, confidentiality and restrictive covenants, defamation, safety in the workplace and immigration. She has developed vast experience in the legal and regulatory aspects of both federal and local labor issues. Janine counsels small, medium and large national and international corporations regarding employment issues on an ongoing basis.

She advises a wide range of businesses covering a number of sectors, among them retail, wholesale, services, educational institutions, hospitality and leisure, communications and manufacturing. Her extensive experience includes wrongful discharges; employment discrimination proceedings at the federal, state and local levels; defending claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Puerto Rico wage-and-hour laws; and representation before the Unemployment Bureau, Industrial Commission, Anti-Discrimination Unit, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Arbitration and Conciliation Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board.

Janine works closely with the firm's corporate group in conducting due diligences and assisting in the disclosures of employee and labor matters in business mergers and acquisitions, on both the buy and sell sides, as well as in stock or asset purchase deals. In recent years, she has participated in important transactions involving financial institutions, communication companies and medical and hospital supply distributors.

Janine currently co-chairs the US Immigration Practice and the LatAm Employment Practice. She is also the Chair of the Pro Bono Committee and Co-chair of the D&I Committee for the San Juan DLA Office.

Janine has served as a lecturer in employment law seminars for different organizations, including the Puerto Rico Association for Labor Relations Practitioners, the Society for Human Resources Management and Council of Education in Management.

Additionally, she counsels clients on the regulatory aspects of the Puerto Rico Department of Consumers Affairs, represents them in adjudicative proceedings before the agency and trains management teams on Divisional Administrative Contracting Officer (DACO) regulations.

Areas of FocusConsumer Goods, Food and Retail Employment

Bar admissionsPuerto Rico

CourtsUnited States District Court for the District of Puerto RicoUnited States Court of Appeals for the First CircuitSupreme Court of the United States

Adept partner Janine Guzmán of DLA Piper is commended by an interviewee, who reports: 'She is an extremely experienced and professional lawyer who has a good business sense.'
Another respondent goes on to add: 'Janine Guzmán is an exceptional labour and employment practitioner in Puerto Rico.'

— Chambers Latin America Guide, 2023

Awards

Education

J.D., Interamerican University of Puerto Rico

Publications

Seminars

Speaker, "The Puerto Rico Financial Oversight and Management Board's Opposition to the 2022 Labor Reform," DLA Piper International Employment Law Conference, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, September 13, 2022
Speaker, D&I Breakfast Roundtable, DLA Piper, November 15, 2023
Speaker, "What You Should Know About Work Visas and Compliance Requirements for I-9 Forms," Immigration Seminar, Association of Labor Relations Practitioners, May 23, 2024

Prior Experience