Wendy Padilla-Madden is an Attorney in Balch and Bingham’s Birmingham office and practices in the firm’s Labor and Employment group. She specializes in immigration law and the representation of Hispanic-owned businesses.
Wendy’s immigration practice includes assisting employers on immigration compliance, the development of lawful and effective employment policies relating to the hiring of foreign nationals and the implementation of these policies. She routinely works with companies in the construction, manufacturing, food production and food service industries ensuring that they comply with immigration regulations at the Federal, State and local levels. Wendy routinely counsels employers in their participation of the Department of Homeland Security's program for online authorization of employee work authorization, E-verify.
Additionally, she works with these companies to ensure that their contracts with sub-contractors, employement agencies, etc., provide the adequate safeguards and protections for immigration related liabilities. She has also developed innovative practices that help further insulate companies from the liability of immigration related violations committed by their subcontractors and temporary worker agencies.
Wendy also works with local and international employers and helps them obtain temporary and permanent work visas for foreign workers. She is a member of the Governor’s Joint Interim Patriotic Immigration Commission and a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), where she chairs the UPL Committee.
Wendy is very active within the Hispanic Community. She chairs the Board of the Hispanic Business Council of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and is on the Board of the Alabama Latin American Association (ALAS). She also chairs the Alabama Bar’s Spanish-Speaking Lawyers Committee.
She received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Alabama summa cum laude, and her Juris Doctor from the University of Alabama School of Law cum laude.
Wendy was born and raised in Guatemala City, Guatemala and grew up in a multi-lingual family speaking Spanish, English and French.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
- Alabama State Bar
- AILA - American Immigration Lawyers Association
- American Bar Association
- Birmingham Bar Association
- Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, Chair - Hispanic Business Council
- Alabama Bar – Chair - Spanish Speaking Lawyers Committee
- Alabama Latin American Association - ALAS, Board Member
- Specialty Coffee Association of America, Member since 1993
- Beta Gamma Sigma
- AIESEC, Alumni - Guatemala UFM Chapter - 1992
- Governor’s Joint Interim Patriotic Immigration Commission