Fashion and Retail
The retail landscape has changed dramatically – from high street to out of town, from local and national to global, and from bricks to clicks online. Retailers are facing a three-fold challenge to their businesses from e-commerce, global retailing and intellectual property theft. The online revolution continues to blur the line between the rights and wrongs of infringement, and the global nature of many modern industries means businesses are vulnerable to attack in each country in which they operate.
In an increasingly competitive environment, retailers need advice from lawyers who understand the fast changing nature of today's markets and the need for commercially focussed guidance from those who understand not just what has happened or is happening, but what is going to happen.
WHAT MAKES MISHCON DIFFERENT?
We know what we’re talking about.
Our multi-disciplinary Fashion and Retail Group combines the skills of our Intellectual Property practice with those of our Corporate, Employment, Real Estate and Reputation Protection lawyers, collectively offering industry leading knowledge and an operational understanding of a retail business. Whether you are an individual or a business acquiring a property, employing staff, developing a brand, protecting your business or negotiating with your suppliers, we can advise you. Our aim is to help our clients to maximise the value of their assets – whether this is their brand, their property, their people or their reputation – as well as to ensure that those assets are protected.
We understand the power of brand.
Within the fashion and retail sector, a business’s or an individual’s brand is increasingly acknowledged as an asset from which to extract maximum value. However, technological advancements and the international nature of modern business have led to an increase in intellectual property infringements and make policing the market more complex. This can have serious implications for your brand and for your reputation. Our IP experts are on hand to help you to create, exploit and protect intellectual property throughout the whole life of your brand, both domestically and internationally.
We are involved in the industry.
Our knowledge extends across the retail and consumer goods’ sector from the high street to the world of luxury, from supermarkets to fashion outlets. And our clients range from entrepreneurial start ups to iconic fashion designers and well-known fashion retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch, Christian Louboutin, Gucci, Harvey Nichols, Lacoste, Net-a-Porter, Pentland Group, Prada, Speedo and Stylus Media Group.
Our association with Walpole, a non-profit-making organisation that furthers the interests of the British luxury industry, grants us access to and the ability to form relationships with the UK’s most prestigious brands. These cross a range of sectors and include Burberry and Harper's Bazaar. Mishcon de Reya is the sole sponsor of Walpole's Brands of Tomorrow, a bespoke mentorship and coaching programme that helps aspiring British luxury brands fulfil their potential, as well as a sponsor of the Walpole Awards for Excellence. Separately we have also sponsored Fashion Press Week since its inaugural event in 2010 at London’s Saatchi Gallery, which showcased collections for more than 100 leading retailers and designer brands.
We are invested in the industry.
In partnering with Fashion Press Week on the creation of our Fashion Fair and Fashion Discovered brands, we are proud to show our support for new talent in the arenas of both fashion and retail and commitment to the industry. Fashion Fair provides a platform for the UK's most stylish ethical designers, while Fashion Discovered is dedicated to celebrating emerging UK design talent. The designers supported by Mishcon de Reya through Fashion Fair and Fashion Discovered in 2011 are Hemyca, Ciel, Ivana Basilotta, Knock on the Door, Viking Wong, Yan To, Linnie McLarty, Emesha, Outsider, Lena Santana, Ahilya, Lu Flux, Henrietta Ludgate and Francesca Marotta.
Our fashion blog, Lawfully Chic, seeks to capture the essence of “doing good in style”: presenting sustainable fashion, emerging art and design and environmentally responsible travel. Blending comment from those working within the fashion, art and travel industries with the expert opinion of lawyers from Mishcon de Reya, Lawfully Chic has become an interesting backdrop for topical debate and insightful dialogue.