Industries

Fashion, Apparel and Beauty

Why Cooley

Cooley’s fashion, apparel & beauty practice helps clients develop and leverage brand assets that carry significant influence in the marketplace. We have a long history of representing fashion and beauty industry VCs/investors, emerging companies, established brands, ecommerce, brick and mortar businesses, as well as fashtech disruptors and sustainability leaders who are setting new standards for the industry. With more than four decades of experience representing growth companies, we are often involved at inception, forming companies at the startup stage and working with management to build multibillion-dollar brands.

Cooley delivers practical legal and business solutions that protect our clients’ business assets while maintaining flexibility to make the most of them in an evolving global marketplace. We leverage our deep roots in technology to navigate fashion, apparel and beauty brands through cutting-edge ecommerce issues including brand protection, enforcement and expansion, anti-counterfeiting, advertising, media and endorsement laws, data security and privacy protection. Our full-service platform allows for mission-critical collaboration among lawyers across impact practice areas including intellectual property, litigation, product liability, venture financing, public offerings, technology and media transactions and licensing, commercial litigation, government contracts, privacy and data protection, regulatory and M&A.

Capabilities

Corporate

With unparalleled access to the largest and most influential network of venture capital investors in the world, Cooley has played an instrumental role in the growth of leading companies across industries. We have deep experience counseling and negotiating complex product manufacturing, brand and content licensing, and collaboration transactions within the US and internationally. We advise public and private fashion, apparel and beauty companies across all stages of the corporate growth cycle – from inception and funding to exit and beyond. We are the #1 most active law firm for VC financings and VC-backed companies in the US and globally for the past decade and among the most active law firms for IPOs and M&A deals.

Intellectual Property

With 150+ intellectual property lawyers across the US and Europe, Cooley has one of the largest dedicated IP practice groups of any law firm in the country. As a fully integrated, full-service practice, we provide prosecution, counseling and enforcement services that allow our clients to gain the most value from their IP and represent our clients in complex infringement suits in which core brands and products are at stake. Our global trademark, copyright and advertising team understands the critical importance of brand identity and advises fashion, apparel and beauty companies on all aspects of building, defending, expanding and monetizing strong IP portfolios that maximize competitive advantage, including licensing, joint development and co-branding relationships.

Litigation

Cooley has a global commercial litigation practice led by sophisticated and aggressive advocates with a long history of solving complex issues that are at the intersection of law and innovation. Our litigation team is comprised of lawyers with decades of first-chair trial experience, 50+ former judicial clerks and litigation support professionals with deep discovery and case management experience. We are a go-to firm for fashion, apparel and beauty companies facing advertising, consumer, privacy and employment class actions. We also boast one of the country’s most active retail restructuring practices.

Regulatory

Cooley’s lawyers counsel US and foreign companies on compliance with applicable laws and regulations that govern the cross-border movement of goods, services and technology and affect the way such companies conduct business overseas. We regularly represent companies in regulatory and legislative matters before federal and state agencies and provide advice on all stages of development on a range of product safety, compliance and risk management issues and work with lawyers across practice areas to provide in-depth advice regarding product labeling requirements, product recalls, insurance and indemnification issues. We advise on complex global multijurisdictional ecommerce projects covering all aspects of the ecommerce and multichannel ecosystem and other related topics. Our team provides advice on all data protection and other regulatory matters relevant for businesses operating in the digital landscape, such as targeted advertising, location and device tracking and mobile app development, and regularly represent companies before EU data protection authorities and courts in enforcement actions related to privacy, data protection and cybersecurity, including handling data breaches.

Representative Matters

  • Advised sustainable footwear company Allbirds on global trademark and brand protection matters, and we represent the company in all corporate and financing activity, including its recent $100 million Series E financing; also advised on a brand ambassador arrangement with an A-list celebrity
  • Represented sustainable handmade jewelry startup Aurate on its $13 million Series A venture financing and brand ambassador agreement with Kerry Washington
  • Advised fashion retailer Charlotte Russe, a former portfolio company of private equity firm Advent International, on a range of issues including corporate, trademark, employment and class action litigation, and its groundbreaking out-of-court restructuring transaction
  • Advised Drybar, the leading hair salon brand for blowouts, on its agreement to sell its products division, Drybar Products, to Helen of Troy for approximately $255 million
  • Advise Glamsquad, the leader in on-demand beauty services, on its global brand strategy, including foreign and domestic trademark prosecution, clearance and enforcement, as well as corporate and commercial matters related to post shelter-in-place reopening
  • Advised Haus Laboratories, cosmetics and beauty products provider founded by Lady Gaga, advising on company formation, licensing agreements and its recent $10.4 million Series A financing
  • On behalf of Kim Kardashian West and Kylie Jenner, Cooley advised on long-term strategic partnerships with Coty, a leading beauty company, valued at $200 million for KKW Beauty and $600 million for Kylie Cosmetics and Kylie Skin, including cross licenses and services agreements with each of their respective beauty businesses
  • Represented Levi Strauss & Co., the inventor of blue jeans, on its historic $623 million IPO
  • Advise MeUndies, one of the fastest-growing online apparel retailers in the world, on copyright and trademark matters relating to its portfolio throughout the US and abroad and in multiple financing rounds, including its $7 million Series B financing; also advised on strategic content syndication and advertising agreement
  • Represent premier clean beauty brand Nécessaire on corporate and commercial matters, including drafting and negotiating domestic and international distribution agreements and strategic partnerships, and advising on marketing, promotion and sweepstakes
  • Advise Poshmark, a fast-growing online marketplace for new or used clothing, including on the development and launch of its marketplace terms
  • Represented Rent the Runway in multiple financing rounds, including its recent $125 million Series F financing
  • On behalf of Hailey Rhode Bieber and her companies, Rhodedeodato and HRBeauty, Cooley obtained a product-line saving victory when the US District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Rhode NYC’s motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to enjoin Bieber from offering her recently launched skin care line under the RHODE mark. 
  • Advised sustainable footwear company Rothy’s on advertising matters, various influencer and content license agreements and multiple financing rounds, including its $35 million venture financing
  • Advised personal shopping service Stitch Fix on its $120 million IPO, as well as on strategic UK commercial issues
  • Advised Thrive Capital Partners IV on its investment in the Series D financing of Glossier, a unicorn startup beauty brand
  • Successfully defended Victoria’s Secret in a trademark and copyright litigation involving its “LOVE MADE ME DO IT” store signs and merchandise