Retail & Ecommerce

Primary contacts

Anne Marie Estevez, Gregory T. Parks, Nick Bolter, Melissa C. Rodriguez, Allison D. Gargano, Ezra D. Church, Kristin M. Hadgis

Retail companies have amazing breadth and opportunity. They operate in a vast array of geographic markets, consumer segments, and operational environments—from national and international store networks to small regional chains, and from third-party sellers to global ecommerce and marketplace platforms. Retailers are also cross-border employers with direct-to-consumer sales. For these reasons, today’s retailers are exposed to more regulation—and more risk.

Our lawyers have pioneered strategies for defeating class certification that have shaped retail’s litigation landscape on a national scale and our retail and ecommerce team provides the full suite of corporate, business, and finance support—from startup business formation to mergers and acquisitions. We counsel retailers on a variety of labor and employment matters, including Americans with Disabilities Act Title III, website accessibility, wage and hour, consumer class and collective actions, diversity and inclusion, workplace culture, immigration, OSHA, ERISA, and independent contractor issues. Our team also advises on current hotspots for retailers including supply chain, sourcing and distribution agreements, import and export, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability efforts. We also counsel through controversy matters related to insurance recovery, product liability, intellectual property, brand protection, unfair and deceptive trade practices, false advertising, and privacy and cybersecurity, among others. Our retail and ecommerce team also leads complex internal investigations and develop training programs for executives, managers, and nonsupervisory employees.

Ranked in Band 1 by Chambers & Partners USA, our team develops winning legal strategies for countless grocery, home goods, luxury and fashion brands, restaurant and food service, retail pharmacy, and other consumer-facing clients on both the brick-and-mortar and ecommerce marketplace platform.

Grocery

Grocery store operations continue to evolve as consumer demands change. Our lawyers assist independent grocers and worldwide chains as their businesses shift from providing goods in a physical location for pick up to delivery by primary or third-parties through ecommerce. Today’s grocery store must focus on innovation in addition to providing fresh foods. Contactless delivery, jurisdictional regulations, and contactless checkout have become complex areas where grocers rely on our team to assist with vendor contracts, environmental laws, interchange fees, and more.

Contacts: Jeannine Bishop, Joanna Christoforou, Jocelyn Cuttino, Kristin Hadgis, Brendan Killeen

Home Goods

Home goods companies have seen a sharp increase in demand as more individuals and families stay home to enjoy their living spaces and home offices. Home goods companies rely on us to assist with a myriad of business needs including labor and employment, trademark, supply chain, and OSHA guidance, to name a few.

Contacts: Rachelle Dubow, Kathy Gao, Barbara Miller, Doneld Shelkey, Megan Suehiro

Luxury & Fashion Brands

For more than a decade, our luxury and fashion brands team has worked with leading luxury retail companies to provide creative, strategic counsel on everyday issues, and emerging needs in an industry defined by invention and innovation. Lawyers stay ahead of the curve in this fast-moving industry, so clients are prepared to navigate any issue, including counterfeiting, cybertax, supply chain, import and export, and brand protection.

Contacts: Leni Battaglia, Daniel Kadish, Melissa Rodriguez

Marketplaces

Our ecommerce and marketplaces retail team incudes lawyers from around the globe who formulate and execute effective legal action plans in response to ecommerce’s evolving transactional, litigation, and enforcement landscape on a national and international scale. The number of third-party sellers joining online marketplaces is growing exponentially and marketplaces must have the right counsel to guide them through the vastly changing legal environment including Americans with Disability Act website accessibility, human rights issues, international trade issues, FDA issues, and others.

Contacts: Nick Bolter, Anne Marie Estevez, Andy Ray, Richard Rosenblatt, Stephanie Schuster

Restaurant & Food Service

Restaurant and food service establishments that are thriving today quickly pivoted their business models to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Leading restaurants have embraced consumer demand and technology to outperform their peers. Today’s top restaurant and food service providers rely on us to assist with the proper collection of consumer data, commercial contracts with delivery and technology companies, privacy information, and much more.

Contacts: Lincoln Bisbee, Russell Bruch, Ezra Church, Alex Gapihan, Allison Gargano

Retail Pharmacy

Today’s pharmacy has evolved due to consumer demand, changes in regulation, and improving technology. Retail pharmacies go beyond dispensing and preparing prescription drugs to selling a variety of consumer items through brick-and-mortar locations and through ecommerce. Our retail pharmacy team advises dozens of today’s top pharmacy companies on all matters affecting their rapidly changing business.

Contacts: Megan Braden, Alex Gapihan, Howard Young, Jennifer Zargarof