Competition in the retail industry continues to reach new heights, which in turn accelerates the change in the retail landscape. Stores battle each other on every corner and catalogs and online sites continue to change the way consumers shop. Online sales, up 25% in 2005, persist in making significant inroads into consumer purchase patterns. Weil has a long history of representing retail clients that reaches back to the beginning of the firm. We proactively counsel clients with our extensive Corporate, Litigation/Regulatory and Business Finance & Restructuring capabilities to position their products and services, knowing from experience the costs of poorly planned initiatives in a highly-competitive marketplace.

Recognizing the specific needs for high-level legal counseling services, Weil has long focused on the requirements of clients engaged in the retail sector. Our services include international and domestic dispute resolution, corporate transactions, US antitrust and European competition law requirements, multinational brand management, distribution and pricing policies, tax structuring, product liability and recall, and environmental issues.

We also protect clients when others either seek to infringe on their intellectual property or create market conditions that unjustly limit their initiatives. The ownership of and the rights to use intellectual property and related technology are key corporate assets. Lawyers from our Corporate, Litigation/Regulatory and IP practices ensure our clients assets are protected and defendable at all times.

The volatile retail industry often leads to restructuring and insolvency. Weil’s Business Finance & Restructuring practice, together with our Corporate and Real Estate practices, has diverse experience in representing debtors, creditors/committees, buyers and liquidators in all facets of retail cases. We also have substantial experience coordinating the sale of assets in Chapter 11 cases as “going concerns” or as complex liquidation structures.