Maria Crabb is an Australian and UK Admitted Solicitor with 16+ years’ experience in employment law, industrial and employee relations. She is a fluent Spanish speaker with strong HR advisory background, including complex investigations, non-compete matters, dispute resolution, policy management, enterprise bargaining negotiations and ER/employment law compliance

She regularly advises on employment-related issues across SEA, ANZ, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and India ensuring pragmatic advice is provided with a commercial focus. Her role also includes setting and delivering the employee and labour relations strategy in these markets.

She also has hands-on experience by working closely with senior stakeholders in different industries (Tech, FMCG, Transport & Logistics, Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices) on ER/HR generalist matters.

Her experience across APAC includes acquisitions, divestitures, organisational change as well as building manager capability through training programs which impact business outcomes.

Other areas of expertise include advising on all aspects of discrimination law, safety obligations, and conflict resolution.

Distinctively licensed to practice in the United States and her native Japan, Aki Tanaka focuses her practice on international employment and labor law, and is a member of Littler’s APAC team.

Aki understands the laws, language and culture in both countries, and her bilingual abilities bring clarity to workplace uncertainties for Japanese and U.S. employers. Her guidance, document reviews and communication can be conducted in English or Japanese, which conveys precision and efficiency to the counseling process. 

Based on her unique knowledge and experience in U.S. common law jurisdiction and Japanese civil law jurisdiction, Aki also advises U.S.-based, or Asia-based companies on their outbound international labor and employment laws across the globe as well.

Among Aki’s successful engagements for clients are these:

Assisting clients to properly engage workforce in Japan for their market entry to Japan including helping them develop proper employment documents and obtain visa
Counseling clients on terminations, restructuring, market exit, and unpaid overtime issues in Japan
Assisting Japanese clients in the U.S. with discrimination litigation or mediations especially with high level executives as well as providing daily consultation on U.S. employment laws
Providing anti-harassment training in Japanese or English, both in Japan and the U.S.
Before joining Littler, Aki was a partner at a firm in Japan. She practiced law there for more than 10 years. She also has experience as in-house legal counsel to a U.S. employer in Japan operating in the consumer goods industry.

Trent Sutton, an international employment attorney, helps multinational employers navigate and comply with the widely different employment obligations around the globe. Trent uses his experience, Littler’s broad international platform, and his own extensive network to provide strategic human resources and employment advice on a regional and global scale. Trent’s experience living in multiple countries in Asia gives him particular insight to the local customs, laws, and expectations of employers and employees in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

Global Point of Contact. Trent has many years’ experience serving as a Global Point of Contact for Asia Pacific corporations with employment needs in the Americas and Europe, as well as American companies with employment needs in APAC. As the Global Point of Contact, Trent provides strategic employment advice on a regional and global scale, manages multinational human resource initiatives, and connects clients with local counsel to facilitate their needs. Trent’s experience as a Global Point of Contact includes Fortune 100 Asia-based companies with operations in the US or globally, as well as Fortune 500 companies in the US with operations in Asia.
  
Employment Compliance Advice. Trent regularly advises on employment compliance issues, including terminations, investigations, discrimination and harassment claims, litigation, handbook and policy updates, and leave and wage issues. When needed, Trent assembles a team of attorneys across the globe to manage a client’s needs, and covers the full range of employment matters from employee handbooks and policies to disability leave, and executive compensation.
  
Global Transfers and Mobility. Trent supports employers with their mobile workforces. He regularly assesses his clients’ international transfer guidelines and practices; advises on the best approach to an employee traveling across borders; and drafts and/or updates the documentation necessary for secondments (long term and/or short term), transfers, localizations, and other mobility matters.
  
Global Expansion and Workforce Restructuring. Trent assists companies with the employment aspects of their expansion internationally and/or their restructuring efforts that cross national boundaries. Trent uses a top-down approach to such initiatives to ensure consistency and efficiency and involves local licensed counsel to ensure compliance and on-the-ground support for compensation, selection, union and labor negotiations, and other needs.
  
Management and HR Training. Trent is a sought-after trainer with highly positive feedback on numerous employment topics. He has trained hundreds of human resources, business and legal professionals on topics including employee engagement, change management, labor and union relations, and harassment and discrimination; as well as expatriate managers on harassment prevention, wage and hour compliance, documenting employee performance, handling employee complaints, interviewing applicants, bullying; and employees on sexual harassment laws, the importance of diversity and avoiding unconscious bias, and other human resource compliance issues.
*Not licensed to practice law in Singapore or appear in local courts. Littler partners with local firms to service clients on matters related to Singapore law.

Michael Whitbread is a creative employment and data privacy lawyer who brings unique experience and an original perspective to bear on advising employers. He advises across issues as diverse as cross-border equal employment opportunity, data privacy strategy, and the emerging laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence in employment.

Michael brings a solid track record of delivering solutions to challenging advisory matters. He’s handled strategies for managing employee privacy across radically different legislative frameworks. He has supported employers to prevent and address allegations of discrimination, across both highly protective and ‘light-touch’ regimes globally. Michael brings a particular talent and energy for advising employers facing new regimes where there is no established ‘playbook’, first with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018, the EU AI Act’s enactment in 2024 and the looming Australian Privacy Act reforms.

Michael brings first-hand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing in-house teams. He most recently served as deputy to the General Counsel of an AI resume parsing and document comparison software company, headquartered in Australia. Latterly he served as global director of data protection, as group data protection officer, and in-house employment counsel at a British FTSE250 institutional and private client services provider, covering nearly 20 sovereign jurisdictions. Earlier he was regional head of data protection and employment law for an international bank, and an employment lawyer at an offshore ‘Magic Circle’ firm.

Before coming to the U.S., Michael served as chair of the Employment and Discrimination Tribunal in a British offshore territory during a landmark period of reform to local discrimination laws. He brings direct experience of running complex employee relations investigations through to a successful outcome for the client, having served as in-house employee relations specialist at a ‘Magic Circle’ law firm in London and a household-name insurance company in Sydney, Australia.

Michael frequently appears on conference panels to discuss AI ethics and the impact of AI on working life.