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Fashion Law Bootcamp
Welcome to Bootcamp!
The Fashion Law Institute's unique annual Summer Intensive Program, fondly known as Fashion Law Bootcamp, is your opportunity to experience the field of fashion law outside of the regular law school curriculum. It's an unparalleled opportunity to delve into the substance of style, with emphasis on current business and legal issues involving the global fashion industry.
Learn fashion law from industry leaders
The program is run by Professor Susan Scafidi, Founder and Academic Director of the Institute, who pioneered the field of fashion law. She is the first professor to create a course in the area – covering the same material as the Fashion Law Bootcamp edition – and is internationally recognized for her expertise. Participants will also have the opportunity to meet fashion industry leaders and Fashion Law Institute faculty, who teach the Fashion Law curriculum at Fordham Law School and themselves have worked with major brands, such as Tiffany, Kering, LVMH, Wilhelmina, Ford Models, and Conde Nast.
The world of fashion law
Fashion law knowledge gives you vital tools for building fashion's future – and because fashion is a truly global industry, Fashion Law Bootcamp takes a comparative international approach. The syllabus is updated every year, with each section taking a fashion-centered focus to help attendees work with the industry more effectively. Topics include
- intellectual property protection of fashion designs,
- counterfeiting,
- licensing agreements,
- contracts and force majeure,
- employment issues from designers to models,
- antitrust,
- bankruptcy,
- fashion and technology, including data security & privacy,
- fashion finance,
- local manufacturing,
- real estate,
- retail issues,
- consumer protection (including cosmetics and personal care products),
- ethics, sustainability and gre
en fashion, - import/export regulations and tariffs,
- endangered species law,
- sumptuary laws,
- masks and personal protective equipment, and
- dress codes.
For lawyers and others interested in the law and business of fashion
Fashion Law Bootcamp® is open to lawyers (and offers CLE credit), fashion professionals, law students, design students and alumni, and others in the U.S. and abroad who are interested in broadening their knowledge of the law and business of fashion. The program is an excellent way for fashion industry professionals to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the legal issues that they deal with on a regular basis or for practicing lawyers to expand their current practice or even jumpstart a change in career.
Individuals who have not yet had academic or practical exposure to the law and business of fashion, including design students entering their final year of study, are eligible to apply but must have a demonstrated scholastic aptitude and willingness to take on the challenge of studying legal materials.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
The brief application form is below and is also linked here. Completed applications are reviewed as they are received.
CREDITS
Law students: Fashion Law Bootcamp does not issue a Fordham transcript; academic credit will need approval from your home institution. For additional information, please read this and email bootcamp@fashionlawinstitute.com
before applying).
Lawyers: Both newly admitted and experienced attorneys will receive a maximum of 28.0 transitional and non-transitional, professional practice New York State CLE credits, for the online edition. We are looking into CLE certification for other jurisdictions.
California CLE credit certification renewal for the San Francisco/Silicon Valley edition is pending; based on previous years, the amount of CLE credits for this version should be 14.0 transitional and non-transitional, professional practice New York State CLE credits, and 12.0 CLE credit hours for California.
CERTIFICATE
Certificates of completion will be awarded to all participants at the conclusion of the program.
VISA
If you are not a U.S. citizen or legal resident and are in or will enter the U.S. as a non-immigrant, you may need a visa to attend in-person editions of Fashion Law Bootcamp. A student visa is NOT required; attendees typically use a B-2 or B-1 visa depending on their particular interests, or, for qualified countries, the visa waiver program. Please email us for more information.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION about Fashion Law Bootcamp, please email bootcamp@fashionlawinstitute.com.
DATES
New York: June 1-5, 2027
Silicon Valley: TBA (email bootcamp@fashionlawinstitute.com for updates)
CONTENT
The New York in-person edition covers the entire content of Professor Scafidi's pioneering two-credit-hour Fashion Law course.
The Silicon Valley edition covers special topics in fashion law with a technology focus, with sessions at the headquarters of leading brands. More details to be announced!
FEE
New York: $2,450, which includes all expenses associated with the program, including materials and optional sessions.
Silicon Valley: TBD
DEPOSIT
A $250 deposit is due with the application. The deposit is applied toward the program cost and is non-refundable once accepted into the program. We look forward to receiving your application!
ACCOMMODATIONS
There are a number of places to stay in the New York metropolitan area. More details are provided in the admittance letter.
Protected: CLE Materials – The Magic of Fashion
16th Annual Symposium
Please join us this Friday, April 17, for the highlight of the fashion law calendar – our 16th annual Fashion Law Institute symposium, "THE MAGIC OF FASHION," featuring a special performance by Judge Gary Brown!
DATE: April 17, 2026
TIME: 9am-6pm
PLACE: Fordham Law School, 150 W. 62nd Street, 2nd floor
NYS CLE: 6.0 hours total (5.0 professional practice, transitional & non-transitional, and 1.0 diversity, inclusion, and elimination of bias)
9:20am Opening Act
9:30-10:30am Disappearing and Reappearing: The Saks bankruptcy and the future of fashion retail
10:45-11:45am Presto Change-o: Fashion law, technology, and cultural transformation
LUNCH (No knife throwing, sword swallowing, or psychic spoon bending, please!)
1:15-2:15pm Folk Magic: Ghana, kente, and new dimensions in cultural appropriation law
2:30-3:30pm Magic Words: Author conversation with Chantal Fernandez, co-author of Selling Sexy: Victoria's Secret and the Unraveling of an American Icon
3:45-4:45pm Mind Reading: The role of expert witnesses
5pm Potions & Prestidigitation: A cocktail hour performance by Judge Gary Brown
SPEAKERS:
- Sana Ahmed, The Fashion Law Africa Summit and Fashion Business Co Agency
- Moriah Bankapur, Inversa
- The Hon. Gary Brown, E.D.N.Y.
- Melissa Brown, Lawyer and Documentary Film Producer
- Bill D’Arienzo, WDA Strategic Brand Marketing
- Sindy Ding-Voorhees, Kilpatrick Stockton & Townsend
- Ariele Elia, Fashion Law Institute
- Chantal Fernandez, The Cut, New York Magazine
- Joshua W. Kapelman, Hilldun
- Lawrence Maisel, Chanel (ret’d.)
- John Maltbie, Louis Vuitton
- Mimi Plange, Creative Director at Mimi Plange
- Ashley Pusey, Kennedys
- Denning Rodriguez, Rodriguez LLC
- Professor Susan Scafidi, Fashion Law Institute
- Jeff Trexler, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
- Dr. Elizabeth Way, The Museum at FIT
REGISTER NOW!
Inside Out 11
Happy New York Fashion Week! Against a backdrop of political, cultural, and financial upheaval, both courtrooms and this season's best looks are bastions of precision, proportion, and structure. And like custom tailoring and couture, well-constructed lawsuits in fashion are built from the inside out, with in-house counsel taking the measure of the situation and making critical decisions about whether or not to litigate, selection of outside counsel, their own degrees of involvement at various points, and everything else that happens behind the scenes. These influential attorneys typically keep their lips zipped, engaging law firms to present everything from narrowly tailored arguments to voluminous briefs, but our extraordinary speakers have agreed to discuss their processes, stories, do's, don'ts, and other off-the-record insights. Join us on Friday, February 20, for our 11th annual "Inside Out" panel discussion, "Tailored Suits: Fashion's In-House Counsel on Managing Litigation"!
Please note that in order to facilitate candid conversation, this event is in-person only and will not be livestreamed or recorded.
DATE: Friday, February 20, 2026
TIME: 9:30-10:45 am
PLACE: Fordham Law School, 150 W. 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023
NYS CLE: 1.5 hours professional practice, transitional and non-transitional
Speakers:
-
- Sydney Kipen, Gucci
- John Maltbie, Louis Vuitton
- Ashley Valdes, Warby Parker
- Moderated by Professor Susan Scafidi, Founder & Director, Fashion Law Institute at Fordham
REGISTER NOW!
For more information about the Institute or the CLE hardship policy, please contact us at events@fashionlawinstitute.com.
Happy Year of the Horse!
Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinic
We’re here to help! A key part of the Fashion Law Institute’s mission is providing legal assistance to designers and fashion industry professionals, not only in the form of educational programming but also by offering free legal consultations. Long before the launch of the Institute, we realized that there was no fashion-specific pro bono legal program available, and that many emerging and independent designers lacked access to basic legal advice tailored to the fashion industry. With the help of the CFDA, we set out to fill that information gap.
Our series of Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinics matches each individual designer with a volunteer attorney who has both fashion experience and expertise related to the question at hand, along with an advanced student studying fashion law for extra assistance. (We came up with the “pop-up” name as a nod to retail pop-up stores – and a way to distinguish this program from traditional law school clinical courses.)
If you are a designer with a question or an attorney who would like to volunteer, please click here or email us for more information. Designers and other fashion industry professionals, please understand that we do not ordinarily arrange legal counsel apart from the Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinics and that space in this popular program is limited.
Happy holidays!
Exactly twenty years ago, I went public with “fashion law” as a field
– after many conversations and years of research stretching back to before the millennium.
Lots of lawyers laughed.
But because of you, the idea has gone global,
and the fashion industry now has a legal infrastructure to support and guide it.
This year’s Fashion Law Institute holiday theme is personal, combining hope for the future with a nod to “lux et veritas” or “light and truth” – the motto of the university where once I sat in a law school class and wondered about the legal status of fashion.
Peace and light,
Susan Scafidi
All of us at the Fashion Law Institute are excited to see you in the new year,
including at these upcoming events:
Inside Out 11: Fashion’s In-House Counsel
Friday, February 6, 2026
16th Annual Symposium
Friday, April 17, 2026
Applications for our next Fashion Law Bootcamp in New York are also open!
Thanks to the many generous donors and supporters who have made fashion law a reality,
and to the following Fashion Law Pop-Up Clinic hosts (in addition to the many talented attorneys who volunteered their time):
Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman
Dentons
Kilpatrick
Kirkland & Ellis
New York City Bar Fashion Law Committee
It’s not too late to help! If you’re enjoying a holiday glow, the golden glint of a year-end bonus, or simply the satisfaction of planning a tax deduction, please help us continue the work of the Fashion Law Institute with your donation. We’re a self-supporting 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and contributions at all levels are deeply appreciated!
Protected: Death, Divorce, & Drama CLE Material
Death, Divorce, & Drama
Fashion brands are often personal endeavors, founded, funded, and run by friends, lovers, and family members. Creative partnerships are a longstanding source of success in the industry, but the connections between the personal and the professional also give rise to complications, including questions of death and succession, fallout from a divorce or breakup, and daily dramas. The off-the-runway events that were the talk of the industry during the recent fashion month – Giorgio Armani's unusual will and the Natalie Massenet / Erik Torstensson split – are the most prominent recent examples, but these issues eventually affect many fashion designers and companies. How can the personal and the professional coexist productively? What makes succession successful? What are the official and unofficial roles of attorneys when the bosses' boardrooms and the bedrooms are effectively the same space? What happens when employees, board members, and counsel are caught in interpersonal or intergenerational crossfire? Will European-style family businesses, American-influenced independent investment, or some other form be the future of fashion? Join us for a Fashion Law Institute panel discussion of these questions and more, "Death, Divorce, & Drama: Managing the Personal and Professional in Fashion"!
TIME: 6:30-7:45 pm (reception starting at 6:00 pm)
PLACE: Costantino Room, 2nd Floor, Fordham Law School, 150 W. 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023
NYS CLE: 1.5 hours ethics and professionalism
SPEAKERS:
- Nick Barnhorst, Fresh
- Robert Stephan Cohen, Cohen Clair Lans Greifer & Simpson
- Jeff Trexler, Fashion Ethics, Sustainability, & Development Professor
- Gary Wassner, Hilldun
For more information about the Institute or the CLE hardship policy, please contact us at events@fashionlawinstitute.com.
Alterations & Altercations
Trademark protection is strong, flexible, and woven into the fabric of the fashion industry. In the absence of comprehensive, internationally harmonized intellectual property rights, fashion houses and designers often turn to trademarks to protect their work. Even such an elastic field of law has limits, however, and recent litigation such as Lululemon’s complex case against Costco, Coogi’s lawsuit against Louis Vuitton, Epoch’s objection to certain uses of its Calico Critters, Vetements’ challenge to the refusal to register its mark, Hermès’ Birkin battles, and adidas’ strife over its three stripes are challenging attorneys to think creatively. Join us during New York Fashion Week as we celebrate fifteen years of the Fashion Law Institute and ask our distinguished panel of experts to ponder a perennial problem, “Alterations & Altercations: How far can fashion trademarks stretch?”
DATE: Friday, September 12, 2025
TIME: 9:30-10:45 am (with coffee at 9:00 am)
PLACE: Bateman Room, 2nd Floor, Fordham Law School, 150 W. 62nd Street, New York, NY 10023
NYS CLE: 1.5 hours professional practice, transitional and non-transitional
SPEAKERS:
- John Maltbie, Louis Vuitton
- Jana Checa Chong, Louis Vuitton
- Gerald J. Ferguson, BakerHostetler
- Mary Kate Brennan, Dentons
SOLD OUT!
For more information about the Institute or the CLE hardship policy, please contact us at events@fashionlawinstitute.com.