Fashion and Consumer Brands

We provide holistic advice on all aspects of strategy and operations, tailoring our services to address each client’s individual needs. Fashion and consumer brand clients turn to Kramer Levin for guidance regarding general corporate, tax and IP matters, as well as mission-critical projects such as:

• Starting a company
• Growing or transforming a business through an acquisition or sale
• Structuring investments and licensing transactions
• Maintaining brand integrity and optimizing brand protection worldwide
• Monetizing, protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights
• Negotiating supply, manufacturing, distribution and other significant commercial agreements
• Establishing data protection and cybersecurity policies and effectuating technology agreements to facilitate electronic and mobile commerce
• Realizing opportunities through restructuring, liquidation, and strategic asset purchases and sales

We bridge gaps in valuation between buyers and sellers through earnouts, IP licenses, and employment and consulting arrangements. In addition to our transactional work, we represent fashion and consumer brand clients in litigation involving trademarks, licensing, and allegations of unfair competition and counterfeiting.

Because of our deep-bench experience, we’re able to provide broad-ranging counsel to clients regarding apparel industry-specific issues, including returns and allowances, excess inventory treatment, factoring, and structures for overseas operations, as well as post-transaction transitional services to facilitate seamless business integration following mergers, acquisitions and other corporate changes.

In the New York office, we maintain a French desk staffed by French-speaking lawyers admitted in both New York and France. These lawyers leverage close working relationships with our Paris office lawyers and local counsel throughout Europe to provide practical counsel to U.S. and European clients in a wide range of cross-border matters.