Trending: An Education in Fashion Law

Fashion may be the epitome of imagination and art but without fashion lawyers to help protect inimitable brands and original works, the industry cannot thrive and advance. Human creativity needs safeguarding.
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Fashion may be the epitome of imagination and art but without fashion lawyers to help protect inimitable brands and original works, the industry cannot thrive and advance. Human creativity needs safeguarding.

The profitability and sustainability of fashion rests in large part with the legal community. Generations of law school students have been clamoring for a serious education in fashion law. How far can scholarship go to strengthen and protect fashion?

Fordham University School of Law recently announced it will offer two academic degrees in fashion law: A Master of Laws (L.L.M.) in Fashion Law for lawyers and a Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.) for non-lawyers. Starting in the fall, courses may include finance, ethics, licensing, corporate compliance, supply chain management and international trade.

Fashion law learning has slowly seeped into the chic consciousness of American law schools like New York University School of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, fashion law education is not a pervasive component of the law school landscape and that must change as fashion law penetrates a variety of legal disciplines students would be remiss not to master.

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Fashioning a workable approach to fashion law education means diversification and consideration of the challenges faced by brands, consumers, manufacturers, retailers and investors. With the rapid commercialization of fashion, law schools (and law firms) must embrace progressive and bold methods of teaching and training lawyers in the field of fashion law.

Fashion lawyers can initiate, adapt, innovate and evolve companies. The modernization and globalization of fashion requires attorneys to help navigate apparel, footwear, fragrance and beauty clients through a knotty labyrinth of licensing, labor law, merchandising and business law issues.

Fashion law students must appreciate the nature of product cycles, celebrity endorsements and publicity, unfair competition, customs (import/export), mergers and acquisitions, trade secret law and how to best combat counterfeit goods.

Intellectual property considerations are a growing concern due to the effortlessness in which products can be counterfeited. But an education in fashion law must also include instruction in international law, tax law, consumer protection, real estate zoning and leasing and ecommerce trends.

In addition, technology savoir-faire is crucial for the fashion lawyer to examine new software, apps, wearable technology and 3D printing breakthroughs.

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Sometimes you have to rock convention to end up with an education model that is avant-garde. A career in fashion law has become a more viable option for people with varying talents as it integrates a hearty breed of legal practice areas.

Branding, marketing, developing a business plan, learning how to start an independent fashion label, drafting partnership or franchise agreements and negotiating wage and labor issues are all part of the fashion lawyer's modus operandi.

The seismic shift in fashion law has begun and no one is waxing poetic about a bygone era where fashion law was a shapeless idea without any street cred or stylish substance. As evidenced above, fashion law is a discipline deserving of something other than a one-size-fits-all education and training model.

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