As luxury brands continue to develop and expand across the globe, companies need guidance and strategic legal advice to support them in all aspects of their business. Our clients rely on us to help them overcome the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities in the growing luxury brands market—from high streets to e-commerce—wherever their business takes them. Our multidisciplinary team has a longstanding partnership with many luxury brands and is prepared to advise clients on a variety of strategic and legal matters. Our team has the specific knowledge to assist with luxury brands to protect the brand’s desire for exclusivity, store design and construction, and protecting and preserving brand recognition. Akin to luxury brands that focus on long-term relationships with its customers on a personalized basis, the team at Blank Rome mirrors this approach with fostering long term holistic relationships with our brand clients. Blank Rome’s attorneys know that as luxury brand and high-end designers and retailers, your high standing and name recognition are of the utmost importance, and we bring the legal skills to help you remain on top.
We develop long-term partnerships with our luxury brand clients, providing them with the full spectrum of legal services, from day-to-day strategic advice for their U.S. operations to serving as quasi outside general counsel to assist in handling real estate; corporate governance; business restructuring, bankruptcy, and settlements; employment; data privacy; brand protection; and intellectual property matters. Over many years, our in-depth knowledge of and experience in the luxury retail industry has allowed us to develop a practical and holistic approach, working very closely with in-house legal teams as well as senior management and HR professionals.
How We Can Help
Addressing the many legal issues that can arise in this dynamic industry requires a solid understanding of business demands and industry trends. Some of the ways our team can help include:
Real Estate
Blank Rome’s large and diverse team of real estate attorneys are supported by a deep bench of legal professionals with experience in a wide array of real estate matters including leasing, financing, tax law, and litigation, among others.
Our team has represented luxury retail tenants, owners, and stakeholders, including many Fortune 500 companies and high-end retailers with multiple locations and corporate offices in the United States and abroad. We have negotiated triple net and ground leases for offices, lofts, and store fronts. We have also assisted real estate owners with the financing and sale of office buildings, vacant land, shopping centers, and other commercial and residential properties.
Blank Rome’s team understands this market, and we know its laws. Whether our clients are finalizing a multi-city expansion, a portfolio transaction, or simply closing a single-property deal, our team is here to help mitigate the potential pitfalls, develop a strategy, evaluate financing, and ultimately seize the right opportunities.
Corporate Governance
Blank Rome’s corporate governance attorneys represent clients on an array of important regulatory issues. Corporate management, boards of directors, and board committees operate today in an increasingly regulated environment. Whether faced with a government investigation or conducting a governance audit, our ultimate goal is to enable our clients to achieve their strategic objectives while managing any risk exposure.
Corporate governance solutions are not a “one size fits all” proposition, and just as within the luxury brands industry, each businesses’ needs and goals are unique, and effective corporate governance requires understanding, analysis, coordination and creativity. It has never been more important for businesses to effectively engage with regulators, advisers, and shareholders to avoid the risk and burden brought about by weak or faulty governance.
Our team has advised luxury brands clients on all aspects of corporate governance and best practices, as well as compliance with federal and state laws and regulations. These compliance issues have become increasingly important for corporate boards and directors that face stringent regulations, thus creating a need for guidance with all forms of corporate governance arrangements.
Retail & E-commerce
Blank Rome has represented manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, licensors (and licensees), and sellers, as well as their retail counterparts, across every stage of United States and global manufacturing, including managing relationships with vertical and horizontal partners. We counsel leading fashion and design houses, apparel manufacturers and retailers (including online e-commerce businesses), and luxury goods companies in all aspects of their vertical business, including the sale of retail goods.
We act as outside general counsel and, in some cases, acting general counsel to companies involved in manufacturing, distributing, licensing, supplying, and facilitating the retail sale of fashion and luxury goods for the world’s largest sellers.
Over the years, our attorneys have advised web-based e-commerce companies on a wide range of matters, including trademark, data privacy and security, real estate, and cross-border import and export transactions, as well as various tax related matters, among others. The matters span all facets of retail and online sales for numerous well-known designer brands including regulations, imports and exports, taxes, antitrust laws, contracts, employment, licensing, distribution, and supply chain.
Hospitality
The hospitality attorneys at Blank Rome have represented a broad range of clients within the luxury brands industry. Their clients include capital investors, hotel operators, special services, various lenders, as well as gaming and leisure companies, across a multitude of legal matters ranging from general corporate endeavors to the financing of various brand name hospitality ventures.
Our attorneys have provided comprehensive assistance to luxury brand clients in a variety of hospitality matters across the globe. This includes negotiating and drafting partnerships, shareholder agreements, joint ventures, licensing, management agreements, and leasing agreements, among other endeavors.
Labor & Employment
Blank Rome’s nationally recognized labor and employment attorneys are available to advise our luxury brand clients in the array of issues faced by HR managers and in-house counsel. Our labor and employment team is committed to understanding the business, the needs and priorities, and the unique risks that luxury brands face.
We offer counseling and compliance support to help our clients avoid problems before they arise; and with the support of more than 400 litigators across 16 offices, we are ready and able to help you resolve disputes efficiently to minimize disruption to your business.
State & Local Tax
Blank Rome’s prominent state + local tax (“SALT”) team includes attorneys who pioneered the practice of SALT on a national basis. Our team helps steer our clients through the complexity of the state and local tax issues they face, and can help proactively manage and control any related tax burdens.
We also regularly advise clients on the state and local tax implications of complex corporate transactions and reorganizations, including multistate acquisitions, dispositions, restructurings, and asset-based financing transactions.
Our team also assists clients with the development of tax organizational charts, entity formations, and operating agreements. This work is critical to our clients in protecting them not only from tax liability issues, but also from various legal liability issues that may arise.
Intellectual Property
Blank Rome’s intellectual property attorneys are dedicated to helping clients develop, protect, strategically manage, and maximize the value of their intellectual assets. Our award-winning trademark attorneys offer a full range of services, including selection, development, contested proceedings, portfolio planning, and trademark clearance, as well as registration, use, and maintenance.
The result of our work is a comprehensive brand strategy that helps companies manage their trademarks as well as develop and maintain the brand reputation their customers expect.
Litigation & Consumer Protection
Blank Rome’s trial attorneys have extensive experience defending consumer class actions in both state and federal court, ranging from “bet-the-company” nationwide class actions to smaller statewide class actions.
We have a track record of successfully representing clients in litigation claims related to: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations and actions; Consumer Protection Act issues; Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act; Fair Debt Collection Practices Act; unfair and deceptive acts and practices; Equal Credit Opportunity Act; Fair Credit Reporting Act; predatory lending practices; consumer fraud; federal loan modification programs; state consumer protection laws; and National Mortgage Settlement and related consent order claims. We have assisted our luxury goods clients with branding matters for gift cards, shopping bags, and overall compliance with related regulations.
Blank Rome also provides a dedicated Proposition 65 (“Prop 65”) team, which is well known in California, that has handled many Prop 65 cases throughout the state. Our attorneys help businesses in a multitude of industries navigate the significant reach and regulatory complexities of California’s Prop 65 and establish comprehensive compliance programs to avoid associated claims.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Blank Rome’s team of experienced mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) attorneys understand that successful transactions require meticulous attention to detail, knowledge of our client’s specific business needs and the environment in which they operate, and a sound strategy to bring all of these pieces together to close the transaction.
Our team closes more than 160 transactions annually, ranging from tens of millions of dollars to billions. Our work includes responding to acquisition offers, establishing special committees, advising proxy contestants, structuring acquisitions, and making acquisition offers. We also arrange public and private financing to fund the transactions.
Blank Rome has assisted luxury clients in a broad array of transactions, including representing the Watches of Switzerland Group in its 2024 acquisition of the assets of Hodinkee, Inc., a leading editorial media organization producing in-depth journalism covering the entire watch industry and generating engaging, educational, and entertaining watch content. As part of this transaction, Watches of Switzerland also acquired Hodinkee Insurance, which offers protection for watches and jewelry.
Financing
Whether the matter is lending or leasing, structuring debt financing, or corporate restructuring, Blank Rome’s team of attorneys is available to develop solutions that are based on our clients’ specific needs.
Our team has advised luxury brands clients on a broad range of finance matters, including banking transactions, joint venture agreements and investments, high-leveraged acquisition financings, debt securities, and private placements, as well as various other structured financing projects.
Insurance Recovery
Just like any other industry, a luxury brand’s insurance portfolio is an asset. At Blank Rome, our firm’s leading Insurance Recovery attorneys have one overarching objective: to maximize our clients’ bottom lines and protect their business. Our attorneys have handled virtually every type of policy, loss, or claim on behalf of our clients. Our team represents policyholders exclusively, taking a creative and pragmatic approach to insurance and recovery of losses—we can find coverage where the others cannot. Our firm’s focus on policyholders makes us conflict-free, and we can be adverse to any insurer.
Our insurance recovery team is capable of mobilizing around a broad range of issues relating to many types of claims, including those arising from:
- Allegations of wrongdoing including negligence, property damage, personal injury, intellectual property disputes, directors’ and officers’ malfeasance, and professional errors and omissions
- Data breaches involving private information, including personally identifiable information
- First party events, including severe weather, fires, or other natural disasters and their impact on retail stores, distribution facilities, and customers
- Employee theft
- Issues arising from goods in transit
Blank Rome’s attorneys represent clients in a variety of matters, including policy audits, risk assessments, litigation for coverage recoveries, and complex resolutions that include strategic settlements and other options. Our greatest strength is finding and taking advantage of coverage that others might not consider. We pride ourselves on breaking new ground and creating solutions for clients with precedent-setting litigation, mediation, arbitration, and settlement strategies that lead to landmark rulings and new types of coverage, as well as major advances for growing businesses. With decades of proven success in recovering billions, our clients turn to us for the analysis, experience, and reputation businesses expect in any insurance recovery situation.
Bankruptcy & Restructuring
In any industry, no business wants to experience bankruptcy, yet, if it’s unavoidable, the ability to restructure a company’s debt and retain its value is vital. Achieving an agreeable outcome can be particularly complicated for both debtors and creditors, as well as expensive, time consuming, and can involve any number of stakeholders. Clients turn to us to find the guidance they need to make it through the experience.
Blank Rome’s business restructuring and bankruptcy team advises our clients in a broad range of bankruptcy, reorganization, and workout matters, including related litigation and credit and business transactions. The strength of our team, coupled with our firm’s interdisciplinary structure, allows us to leverage resources and attorney insights throughout many areas.
Our firm is able to provide bankruptcy and restructuring counsel to luxury brands clients for a range of issues, including:
- Corporate bankruptcies and related litigation issues
- Credit management issues
- Debt-in-possession (“DIP”) lender financing
- Distressed M&A and reorganization in bankruptcy
- International insolvency
- Workouts and out-of-court restructuring/bankruptcy alternatives
Data Privacy
Blank Rome’s national team of experienced privacy, security, and data protection attorneys has spent decades at the cutting edge of technology, helping clients navigate the patchwork of data privacy laws and the myriad of issues posed by digital technologies, information technology, outsourcing, marketing, and data rights across various industries and sectors.
Our multidisciplinary team of leading cybersecurity and data privacy professionals advises clients on a variety of matters including the potential consequences of cybersecurity threats and how to implement comprehensive measures for mitigating cyber risks. Our team can help our clients prepare customized strategy and action plans as well as provide ongoing support and maintenance to promote cybersecurity awareness.
Our team also counsels clients on compliance with a wide array of state, federal, and international data security laws and regulations, including:
- EU General Data Protection Regulation (“EU GDPR”)
- Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”) and other state laws governing the collection and use of biometric information
- EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (“ePrivacy Directive”)
- California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”)
- Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (“VCDPA”)
- Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC”)
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) and Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA”)
- Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”)
- Stored Communications Act (“SCA”) and state recording laws