Fashion, Luxury & Retail
Overview
The luxury industry is sophisticated and dynamic. Strategy is crucial and timing is everything. In this digital age when opportunities and threats can arise at a moment’s notice, you need a legal business partner who understands your company’s objectives and can navigate you through the unique demands of the luxury industry.
Since 1984, Barack Ferrazzano has been a strategic legal business partner to some of the most respected and iconic luxury goods companies in America and around the world. Notably, we have acted as principal U.S. counsel for Paris-based Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, a world leader in luxury goods, since 1987.
For decades, Barack Ferrazzano lawyers have been immersed in the business and legal aspects of the luxury industry, including fashion and accessories, watches and jewelry, wines and spirits, cosmetics, fragrance and skincare, motor vehicle, and hospitality. We understand that cultivating our second generation of lawyers so they appreciate the unique demands of luxury goods clients is instrumental in our continued success in this industry, which sets us apart from other law firms. Our diverse and extraordinary talent allows us to craft unusually practical, creative, and effective solutions to complex challenges and transactions exclusive to the luxury industry, which has been instrumental for our domestic and international clients’ prosperity.
Our Services
The services we provide to luxury goods clients include:
Brand & Product Development
- Intellectual property counseling, clearance, and registration (U.S. and International), including trademarks, trade dress, design patents, copyrights, slogans, and logos; and
- Manufacturing and supplier agreements.
Brand & Product Promotion
- Trademark license agreements (U.S. and International);
- Celebrity endorsement and brand ambassador agreements;
- Product placement agreements; and
- New product launch support.
Product Sales & Distribution
- Agreements for third party sale and distribution of products, including franchise, distribution, and license agreements (U.S. and International);
- Agreements for direct company sale of products, including design and construction contracts and retail lease agreements for company-owned stores, store-in-store agreements, and department store agreements (U.S.);
- E-commerce policies, programs, and agreements; and
- Logistics agreements (U.S. and International).
Asset Protection – Brands, Company, & Reputation
- Litigation matters, including contract disputes, distribution disputes, intellectual property disputes, and employment disputes;
- Intellectual property matters, including maintenance, protection, and enforcement;
- Employment matters, including employer-employee relationship matters, executive compensation, incentive plans, and retirement plans;
- General corporate matters, and maintenance of corporate books and records; and
- Tax matters.
Expansion
- Strategic transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, and joint ventures;
- Real estate leasing, acquisitions, and divestitures; and
- Books and record upkeep.
Representative Clients
- Audi of America
- Automobili Lamborghini America
- Benefit Cosmetics
- Bentley Motors
- Bugatti USA
- Christian Dior
- Donna Karan International
- Fendi
- Fresh, Inc.
- Givenchy
- Guerlain
- Hublot of America
- Hugo Boss AG
- Kendo Holdings
- Louis Vuitton
- Marc Jacobs
- Moët Hennessy USA, Inc.
- Parfums Christian Dior
- Porsche Cars North America, Inc.
- Sephora USA
- Tag Heuer
- Thomas Pink
- Zegna
Experience
Representative Matters
Representation of Assembled Brands – the company that finances emerging consumer goods brands – in a deal that secured $100 million in permanent capital from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. Assembled Brands will use the funds to finance the next generation of consumer goods brands and to continue the development of its proprietary underwriting technology.
Represented LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in its sale of its interest in Bliss to Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
Represented a division of LVMH in the intellectual property aspects of its acquisition of Millennium Imports, LLC, which held the worldwide rights to Belvedere and Chopin brand vodkas, including overseeing all due diligence activity, and negotiating all intellectual property provisions of the transaction documents.
Representation of Kendo Holdings, Inc., a cosmetics and beauty incubator company owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and affiliated with Sephora, in strategic transactions related to the formation and launch of the brand Fenty Beauty by Rihanna.
Represented LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in its acquisition of a number of cosmetics companies, including Fresh, Benefit Cosmetics, Bliss, and Hard Candy.
Representation of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in its acquisition by merger of Donna Karan International Inc., a publicly held retail company, and a related private company that owns the Donna Karan trademarks, for a total cash purchase price in excess of $700 million.
Represented LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in its acquisition of Duty Free Stores in a cash transaction valued at over $2 billion.
Representation of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in its acquisition of a UK company that owns Hotel Saint-Barth Isle de France, a 5-star hotel located on the Caribbean Island of St. Barthémy. The acquisition involved complex holding structures that required extensive tax planning and negotiations with minority shareholders.
Representation of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in connection with its acquisition of botanical skincare company Ole Henriksen.
The Firm has a longstanding relationship with LVMH, an iconic luxury goods and services conglomerate with 60+ brands, serving as outside counsel for its corporate and real estate transactions, as well as intellectual property and litigation matters around the world, and providing strategic legal counsel in connection with acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, brand management, employment agreements, and endorsement agreements.
Ongoing representation of several cosmetic companies in connection with the prosecution, maintenance, and licensing of their worldwide trademark portfolios, which work has involved preparing cease-and-desist letters to infringing entities and initiating litigation to the extent necessary to protect the client’s intellectual property rights.
Representative Clients
- Automobili Lamborghini America
- Bentley Motors
- Christian Dior
- Ermenegildo Zegna
- Fendi
- Fresh
- Givenchy
- Hublot of America
- Hugo Boss
- Kendo Holdings
- Louis Vuitton
- Marc Jacobs
- Moët Hennessy USA
- Sephora USA
- Thomas Pink
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