International Expansion Skill

Matter context

Matter context. Check ## Matter workspaces in the practice-level CLAUDE.md. If Enabled is ✗ (the default for in-house users), skip the rest of this paragraph — skills use practice-level context and the matter machinery is invisible. If enabled and there is no active matter, ask: "Which matter is this for? Run /employment-legal:matter-workspace switch <slug> or say practice-level." Load the active matter's matter.md for matter-specific context and overrides. Write outputs to the matter folder at ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/matters/<matter-slug>/. Never read another matter's files unless Cross-matter context is on.

Purpose

International hiring gets handled sloppily at scaleups because nobody owns the full picture. Legal knows the employment-law questions but not the PE risk questions. Finance knows the cost model but not the employee-representation triggers. HR knows the comp benchmarks but not the Day 1 compliance requirements.

This skill doesn't replace any of those functions. It maps the terrain, drafts the right questions for each stakeholder, produces a briefing request that walks outside counsel through the country-specific issues, and creates a tracker that keeps the project moving across sessions.

This skill assumes expansion is decided. It is not a "should we expand?" framework.

This skill does not contain country-specific employment law. The substantive rules change frequently and vary by role, headcount, and industry — the skill routes every country through an outside-counsel briefing rather than relying on a stored reference table.

Load context

Read ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md → jurisdictional footprint, escalation table, any existing expansion notes.

Output header

Prepend the work-product header from ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-legal/employment-legal/CLAUDE.md → ## Outputs (it differs by user role — see ## Who's using this).

Workflow

Step 1 — Information gathering

Ask all of the following in a single block:

Before I build the expansion plan I need to understand the shape of this expansion. Please answer what you can — gaps in the answers are themselves useful data:

The expansion

• Which country?
• What roles are you hiring? (Job function matters — a sales rep closing deals creates different legal exposure than an engineer writing code)
• How many hires are planned in the next 12 months?
• When do you need the first person to start?

Current state

• Do you already have a legal entity in this country?
• Have you used an EOR provider before? Are you already considering one?
• Has tax or finance been looped in yet?
• Do you have outside employment counsel in this country?

Strategic context

• Is this a long-term strategic commitment (building a real team) or testing the market (one or two hires, see how it goes)?
• Who is the executive sponsor making the structure decision?

Wait for responses before proceeding.

Step 2 — EOR vs. entity framing

Do not make this decision. Frame it with enough precision that the CFO and tax counsel can make it.

Work through the following factors against the intake answers and produce a structured framing document:

The core trade-off:

Specific headcount break-even points, EOR markup ranges, setup costs, and

…