Lorena Arámbula

Practice Areas

Employment and Labor

Career

Lorena is a partner and heads the Firm’s Employment and Labor group. She is regularly ranked as a leading lawyer in the field by major legal directories. She combines her position as head of the labor and immigration team with her commercial and corporate practice.

Her experience covers the full range of labor and employment, including ongoing advisory and compliance work, immigration, compensation and employee benefit arrangements.. She is involved in sensitive litigation proceedings before Colombia’s labor courts. She has extensive experience advising on labor, immigration, and business laws and regulations, including the incorporation, acquisition, and start-up´s hiring packages, design and implementation of broad-based equity compensation plans and the full range of executive share and options plans, including performance-based packages, terminations, among others.

Lorena and her team are constantly recognized for their proactive solutions to local and foreign-based companies, ensuring that employers are well protected against future claims.

Professional Memberships

College of Work Lawyers.

International Bar Association.

Publications

IBA GEI Annual Global Report, IBA Global Employment Institute, 2024

The International Comparative Legal Guide to Labour Law, Global Legal Group, 2011 – 2015

Social Security Regime in Health before and after Law 100 of 1993

Experience

Confidential Client: Advising on the sale of a company as part of an acquisition transaction in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina, with an enterprise value of 838 million euros. The company involved operates a global network of 19 facilities, primarily in Europe and the Americas, with approximately 4,000 employees and patented manufacturing technologies, including significant cleanroom capabilities.

Confidential Client: Advising on employment termination processes for multiple agencies within a corporate group, including the termination of a CFO. Our advice included structuring a termination plan, reviewing alternatives for termination or relocation of employees with special protections, and preparing the termination documentation (transaction agreements, negotiation of new employment conditions, contract addendums, etc.).

Confidential Client: Advising a multinational company on more than ten legal actions, including ordinary labor lawsuits, constitutional actions (tutela actions), and complaints before the Ministry of Labor, related to allegations of workplace and sexual harassment.

Multinational Companies: Provided legal advisory services regarding stock, options, and other employee benefit plans for various multinational companies in the pharmaceutical, food, financial services, and other sectors.

Various companies: Advising on matters related to major transactions’ labor and social security aspects. Some of the companies involved belong to sectors such as energy production and solutions, airports operation, and financial services, among others.

Several companies: Providing advice at different stages (response to requirements to declare or amend, motion for reconsideration, annulment and restoration of rights actions, etc.) of the control proceedings on contributions to social security and parafiscal contributions developed by the UGPP (Unidad de Gestión Pensional y Parafiscales - Pensions and Parafiscal Management Unit). Counseling on the termination procedures in which the clients were able to timely benefit from the exemptions granted by the newly adopted tax reform which allowed them to save 80% of the sanctions imposed by the UGPP as well as well as of 80% of the interests being charged over outstanding contributions to social security in health, labor risks and payroll taxes.

Local and multinational companies: Permanent representation in lawsuits for claims of different type of employees.

Online Services Company: Advised on alternatives for employee contract terminations due to the closure of its operations in Colombia. Supported negotiations and the preparation of exit documents, including transaction agreements, NDAs, and others.

Marketing Company: Advised on alternatives for transferring a significant number of employees from a temporary staffing company to the client company. Our work included guidance on settlement agreements for claims arising from outsourcing, contract assignments, adjustments to employment conditions, equalization, and other related matters.

Telecommunications company: Advising and implementating of strategies for the regularization of the outsourced personnel management to avoid risks of illegal labor intermediation.

Pharmaceutical company: Advising on the implementation of the contracting scheme for the rendering of services through a new electronic platform.

Private Investment fund: Performing the due diligence process (labor aspects) for the acquisition of a Colombian hotel chain (with more than 250 employees) and other labor matters relating to the transaction.

Energy company: Advising on the labor matters related to the termination of more than 200 employees of the company.

Chemicals company: Advising on labor aspects (including advice on employer’s substitution, regularization of extralegal benefits and others) relating to the asset purchase of a Colombian leading company in the chemical sector and the acquisition of another Colombian company by an American group.

Technology company: Advising on the termination of more than 60 direct and indirect employees, as well as advice on mass-layoff procedures, settlement agreements and contentious issues.The advisory also included negotiation between indirect employees and third party providers of personnel including the execution of tripartite settlement agreements.

Company in the Financial and Insurance Sector: Advising on the implementation of a plan to grant to local employees (more than 3000) the opportunity to participate in a plan for the purchase of shares.

Professional services company: Advising on the procedure to obtain the renewal of the authorization from the governmental entity Unidad de Servicio Público de Empleo to operate as a private employment placement agency.

Technology multinational company: Advised on the adjustment and update of a compendium comparing labor regulations in more than fourteen Latin American countries regarding the management of corporate investigations and the use of work tools.

Multinational Companies: Provides ongoing advisory services to various companies on immigration procedures to regularize the presence of foreign nationals in Colombia, including visa processes, temporary permits, professional permits before regulatory councils, degree validation, nationality applications, and more.

Languages Spoken

English

Spanish

Education

Awards