Law Firm Launches Fashion/Apparel Division
Los Angeles law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP has launched a fashion/apparel division, which will focus on serving the industry in all areas of business on both coasts.
The new division is called FAT, an acronym for Fashion Apparel Team. The group consists of attorneys specializing in a range of disciplines, including labor, entertainment, intellectual property, copyright law and other areas.
Other areas of expertise cover factoring and financing, import/export and customs, mergers and acquisitions, antitrust, employee benefits, and real estate leasing.
The firm has already been serving some industry clients but decided to carve a niche by establishing a division especially for the apparel industry, said partner Robert Darwell. Clients include Abercrombie & Fitch, Kay of California, Victoria’s Secret, Louis Vuitton U.S. and Gap Inc.
The firm has been aligning with key fashion-industry leaders at events such as New York Fashion Week, where it sponsored seminars on celebrity licensing and modeling contracts.
Darwell, an attorney with the company’s entertainment division, is chairman of the new fashion division. He has represented motion-picture studios, television networks, media companies and others in the area of property rights, revenue-sharing agreements, licensing and merchandising, and endorsement deals.
He has been lead counsel on deals involving Disney/Miramax, Random House Films and USA Networks’ asset sale to Vivendi/Universal.
Sheppard Mullin has almost 500 attorneys based in nine offices in California, New York and Washington, D.C. —Robert McAllister
