Retail & Luxury

Our team understands the highly competitive environment in which global retailers and fashion brands operate. We routinely represent prominent industry players in defense against antitrust claims under the Sherman Act and in responding to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigations. Additionally, we regularly handle all aspects of the merger-review and antitrust-clearance process, including in FTC and DOJ merger investigations and lawsuits in connection with third-party mergers.

Our team also provides antitrust counseling to Winston’s retail industry clients, including internal audits of sales practices and developing antitrust trainings and compliance programs that involve the formulation of guidelines for dealings with distributors in the US and abroad.

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Winston regularly represents retailers—including convenience stores, fashion houses, and big-box stores—in consumer class actions alleging improper pricing and labeling. We understand the complex legal issues involved under the Federal Trade Commission Act, the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act and California Business and Professions Code, and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (MMWA), among others. We have a track record of success handling consumer fraud cases for retailers in both state and federal courts and have prevailed on motions to dismiss and opposing class certification on behalf of our retail clients.

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Our employee benefits and executive compensation clients represent a diverse mix of retail sector clients, including a multinational furniture retailer, an e-commerce and big box store, and a home improvement retailer. We offer our clients a full suite of employee benefit and executive compensation services, including:

• Public company reporting and executive compensation;
• Employee benefits issues in mergers and acquisitions;
• Qualified retirement plans and Title I investments;
• Health and welfare benefit plans;
• ERISA litigation;
• Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs); and
• International HR matters.

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Our environmental attorneys have extensive experience defending retail and luxury clients—including a Fortune 50 national retailer—against agency and citizen enforcement actions brought by the EPA and the DOJ. We also handle actions brought by state and local agencies, citizen groups, and private parties across the country.

To help clients reduce the risk of enforcement by federal and state agencies, we also conduct thorough reviews of our clients’ environmental and worker health and safety compliance programs. We support the design and development of these audits, counsel clients throughout the implementation of their audit programs, and help clients address audit findings.

Additionally, our team regularly performs due diligence activities to assist clients in evaluating potential risks involved in transactions. This includes an assessment of statutory, regulatory, and common law claims exposure, regulatory compliance, existing and potential environmental liabilities, and risk reduction strategies.

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Our intellectual property (IP) lawyers work with some of the world’s most valuable brands, helping them protect and defend their brand assets and develop effective approaches for global trademark and domain-name portfolio management. We are involved in significant brand enforcement work for luxury brands, including trademark and trade dress infringement lawsuits, and related global enforcement. We also represent retail clients in patent matters from product design to retail mobile applications, including before the International Trade Commission (ITC).

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We handle employment litigation filed by single plaintiffs, as well as in multi-plaintiff and major class and collective actions covering all types of employment law issues, including wage and hour, misclassification, discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, harassment, and other claims.

Our lawyers are not only seasoned litigators, but also experienced employment counselors who provide practical, litigation-minimizing advice to our clients. We conduct in-house training seminars for clients, and develop, review, edit, and implement personnel policies and employee handbooks for national and international clients.

We currently serve as longstanding national labor and employment law counsel for a multinational luxury goods conglomerate, providing labor and employment services for all its US affiliates.

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We advise retail and luxury clients in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and private equity transactions, providing seamless deal teams that draw upon our corporate and finance practices as well as tax, antitrust, employment, government relations, and other areas as needed. We also advise retail industry clients on all types of cross-border strategic investments, acquisitions, and joint ventures, and help them navigate complex cross-border transactional issues.

Our attorneys also have established a successful track record of advising and representing retail clients in cross-border transactions and assisting them in expanding their operations to the United States, Europe, Asia, and other key international markets.

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We have built a reputation as a trial lawyers’ firm for complex product liability and mass tort litigation, having litigated and tried complex cases across the US involving a wide array of products and in defense of retailers selling these products. Outside of the courtroom, our team has served as product safety counsel for several Fortune 500 clients and advises clients on compliance with state and federal product liability laws and avoidance of product liability claims.

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We represent developers in leasing programs for entire portfolios of shopping centers and warehouse properties and regularly represent institutional clients, as both landlords and tenants, in lease negotiations for space in sophisticated office, retail, and industrial markets. Our attorneys have considerable experience in purchase options, space construction, rent escalation clauses, and leasing brokerage issues. Working in conjunction with property owners, we have developed novel and practical leasing structures to attract top-quality tenants and limit the exposure to owners and lenders of the increased costs associated with such leases. We regularly assist in contract negotiations, financing arrangements, and negotiating ground leases.

We also represent clients in leasing disputes, including those involving maintenance and other lease obligations, and terminations; matters relating to real estate acquisitions, dispositions, and development projects; and cases arising in the bankruptcy context.

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