Human Trafficking in Employment: At-Risk Populations, Red Flags, Legal Protections, Employer Accountability

Ms. Diamond provides comprehensive guidance to clients on employment law, helping them to achieve their business goals through effective and efficient workforce structuring. She advises on complex workplace issues; provides training; conducts internal investigations; drafts policies and procedures; and negotiates employment and severance agreements. Ms. Diamond plays a key role in transactions, counseling clients on the employment aspects of private equity deals and mergers and acquisitions, as well as labor issues related to corporate deals. In addition to revising employment provisions in purchase agreements and analyzing due diligence, she negotiates and drafts employment-related ancillary documents. Drawing from significant courtroom experience, Ms. Diamond helps clients resolve employment-related litigation and administrative hearings before state and federal agencies, including the EEOC. She represents employers across all types of matters, including enforcing and defending noncompetition and nonsolicitation clauses, wage and hour class and collective actions, and discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims. In the labor area, Ms. Diamond assists clients with the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements and defense of grievances, including in arbitration. Before joining the firm, she served as director of HR and operations for a large nonprofit organization where she was responsible for the human resources issues for more than 1,000 employees and contract administration for the agency’s union. As GC of a national retail optical company, she was involved in overseeing the company’s employment law matters, negotiating commercial contracts, and managing the litigation docket. Ms. Diamond speaks and writes frequently about a multitude of employment law issues.

Ms. Kelsey, J.D., is the Director of the Center for Global Justice at Regent University School of Law, where she leads research and initiatives advancing human rights and the rule of law. She founded Virginia's first Human Trafficking Clinic, which provides pro bono legal representation to survivors and has secured record-clearing relief in jurisdictions across the Commonwealth. Ms. Kelsey co-chaired the Virginia legislative workgroup behind the state's criminal record relief laws for trafficking survivors — reforms that expanded in 2025 and again in 2026, progressively broadening vacatur and expungement protections for victims compelled to commit crimes during their trafficking situations. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Miami School of Law, she previously served as an Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney in Norfolk and brings more than 13 years of criminal and civil litigation experience to her advocacy work locally and globally.

Ms. Nadel serves as the Director of Advocacy and Engagement for the 3Strands Global Foundation, a role she was appointed to in February 2026. Within her extensive government-facing work, she also serves as the Director of Legislative Research for the Interparliamentary Taskforce on Human Trafficking and has been a frequent advisor and featured speaker for congressional briefings, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Governors Association. Ms. Nadel was instrumental in the passage of the landmark Trafficking Survivors Relief Act of 2026, providing key testimony before Congress that helped shape legislation focused on judicial relief for survivors. Her previous experience includes serving as a Pembrook Fellow at the Human Trafficking Legal Center, where she coordinated survivor leadership programs, and as an advisor to organizations such as ALIGHT.

Ms. Schifter represents clients in a variety of labor and employment-related matters, including employment discrimination, leave, disability accommodation, and wage and hour litigation. Additionally, she counsels employers on many aspects of employment law and human resources issues, including employee handbooks, policies and restrictive covenants drafted under various states’ laws for a variety of circumstances, including as part of mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Schifter is a frequent author and lecturer on a variety of employment law issues.