Retail

The legal and business issues that impact the retail industry are wide ranging and diverse. They include workforce management, class-action litigation, global sourcing, corporate restructurings, financings, data protection, health-care reform, state tax issues and ever-changing technology, among others. To manage these challenges and take full advantage of emerging opportunities, retailers need strategic legal partners who understand the industry, think like they think and collaborate with them to find customized approaches that meet their specific needs. Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is nationally recognized by Chambers USA in the area of retail.

The retail industry practice group at Hunton Andrews Kurth delivers objective-driven counsel in the areas of labor and employment, commercial litigation, e-commerce, privacy and data security, advertising and marketing, M&A, outsourcing, intellectual property, real estate, international trade, antitrust, employee benefits and corporate governance. The firm’s lawyers frequently publish analysis and insights on legal developments in the field in our  Hunton Retail Law Resource blog.

Our team is composed of more than 200 attorneys who represent retailers in the Fortune 500® and virtually every retail sector, including:

• Supermarkets
• Restaurants
• Home improvement
• Media and entertainment
• Toys and baby products
• Electronics
• Apparel
• Consumer services

Our Overarching Principle: Think How Our Clients Think

At Hunton Andrews Kurth, we provide first-class representation by first understanding our clients' businesses and strategic objectives. Put more directly, we think the way our clients think. To this end, we have structured our retail industry practice group to provide strategic counsel in four key areas of concentration that correlate to the typical retailer's business challenges:

• Employee-driven concerns. We address human resources issues such as employment practices and policies, employment claims and litigation, retirement, health care and other employee benefit programs, executive compensation and labor union matters. Through our Employment & Labor Perspectives™ blog, we provide ongoing updates on important and rapidly emerging developments for retailers in these areas.
• Consumer-focused issues. We advise clients on operational and consumer-related matters, including consumer protection, advertising, commerce, privacy and data protection, antitrust, product liability, class-action and crisis management matters. Our Privacy and Information Security Law Blog provides real-time commentary on developments in data protection law that are critical for retailers handling customer information.
• Business strategy and shareholder-driven issues. We deliver forward-thinking solutions in key areas of finance, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, business restructuring and reorganization, securities law compliance and disclosure counseling, and corporate governance and social responsibility advice.
• Vendor-focused, administrative and compliance matters. In this broad category, we provide retail-savvy real estate, commercial litigation, outsourcing, supply chain, international trade, antitrust, bankruptcy, intellectual property, and environmental and other general regulatory compliance services.

Across all of these areas, our paramount objective is to achieve the practical outcomes that make the greatest business sense for our clients.

Our Approach: Strategic Partnering 

Our strategic partnering approach provides the right resources, from a wide range of legal services, to meet each challenge. The result is a more cost-effective delivery of legal services from a team that understands the needs of the client and its consumers.

Through years of firsthand client service, we have organized our lawyers into teams that understand the retail industry from the perspective of their areas of experience, and can leverage that knowledge to reposition the legal function as a thought-leading, creative business partner focused on solving the challenges that face retailers today. This approach to working with and understanding our clients is the driving factor behind successful partnering. Our strategic partnership model powerfully supports these goals by combining budget certainty with representation that tailors the resources needed to the issues and opportunities at hand. Whether our clients are in growth mode or focused on expense management, the members of our retail industry practice group believe that successful client partnerships begin with exceptional and consistent client experiences.