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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: May 27 - May 31, 2025
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. Details to be announced for the 2025 edition, which had to postponed due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Silicon Valley offices.
FEE
New York: $2,450, which includes all expenses associated with the program, including materials and optional sessions.
Silicon Valley: To be determined. A special reduced combined rate will be available for attendees of both the online and Silicon Valley editions!
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
For the Silicon Valley edition, there are a number of places to stay in San Francisco, and surrounding areas. Details are provided in the admittance letter.
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.
About the Institute
The Fashion Law Institute is the world’s first center dedicated to law and the business of fashion. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created with the generous support and advice of the Council of Fashion Designers of America and its president, Diane von Furstenberg, the Institute offers training for the fashion lawyers, business professionals, and designers of the future; provides legal services for design students and professionals; and provides thought leadership and practical assistance on issues facing the fashion industry.
Professor Susan Scafidi, who pioneered the study of fashion law, founded the Institute and serves as its academic director. She created the first Fashion Law course and is internationally recognized for her expertise and for defining the field. In addition, the Institute is supported by an advisory board including distinguished members of the fashion industry and the bar.
The Fashion Law Institute is headquartered at Fordham Law School, just across the street from Lincoln Center in New York City, and works with universities and other organizations across the country and around the world.
Alexa Chung interviews Professor Scafidi at her Fordham Law School office:
Curriculum & Faculty
In 2006, Professor Scafidi created the first law school course in fashion law, officially launching a new field of law. It took a law school administration that would risk adding this newly imagined course to its curriculum — and a place where students who’d read her pioneering blog on law and fashion design championed the course, faculty members supported it (as one said, "We have sports law. In fact, we have two sections of sports law. Why can't we have fashion law?!"), and, to seal the deal, the then-dean’s spouse had spent years working at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Today, that original signature course has grown to seven fashion law-related courses. Each is the first of its kind, taught by experts in the field. These Fashion Law Institute courses are offered as part of the Fordham Law curriculum not only for J.D. students, but for students enrolled in the world's first Master's degree programs in Fashion Law: the LLM, for attorneys, and the MSL, which enables non-lawyers to gain invaluable legal knowledge and practical expertise.
In response to inquiries from attorneys, fashion industry professionals, and students from other law schools and design schools who wanted to study fashion law, the Fashion Law Institute also developed a unique Summer Intensive program, a.k.a. Fashion Law Bootcamp — once again breaking new ground.
Fashion Modeling Law Professors Ali Grace Marquart (L) & Doreen Small
COURSES
Fashion Law
Cosmetics Regulation
Fashion Ethics, Sustainability, & Development
Fashion & Commercial Real Estate Law
Fashion and Employment Law
Fashion and the In-House Counsel Role
Fashion: Integrating Law and Business
Fashion Law and International Trade
Fashion Law and Finance
Fashion Law and Social Justice
Fashion Law Capstone
Fashion Law Drafting
Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum
Fashion Licensing
Fashion Modeling Law
Fashion Retail Law
FACULTY
Professor Susan Scafidi
Founder & Academic Director
Fashion Law Institute
at Fordham Law School
Ewa Abrams
President
Kering
Peter Arnold
Executive Director
YMA Fashion Scholarship Fund
Paula Barnes
Legal Counsel
Gucci
Claire Bing
Vice President of Regulatory and Quality
Maesa
Ashley Brown
Director
Associate Counsel at Royal Caribbean;
former General Counsel
One Management
Angela Byun
Principal
AB World
Jana Checa Chong
Senior Intellectual Property Counsel
Louis Vuitton North America, Inc.
Melissa Schoffer Farber
General Counsel
BroadwayHD
Louise Firestone
former SVP and General Counsel
LVMH
Grace Fu
General Counsel
KAYAK, OpenTable;
former Executive Vice President of Human Resources,
General Counsel & Secretary
Barneys New York
Jeffrey Hellman
Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel
PVH Corp.
Karyn D. Jefferson
Vice President, Litigation, Labor & Employment
Urban One, Inc
Maryann Lawrence
Managing Counsel
Chanel
John Maltbie
Director of Civil Enforcement, Intellectual Property
Louis Vuitton North America, Inc.
Ali Grace Marquart
SVP, Business Development & Legal Affairs
Bravado at Universal Music Group;
former Deputy General Counsel and
Director, Business & Legal Affairs
Wilhelmina International, Ltd.
Hayley Macon
Senior Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Endeavor
Vanessa Nadal
Attorney and Engineer;
Global Marketing Counsel
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
former R&D Scientist
Innovative Skin Care Platform
Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Worldwide
Don M. Obert
Customs, International Cargo & Regulatory Compliance Attorney and
Counselor at Law
The Obert Law Firm
Daniel Rosenberg
General Counsel
Chanel
Stanley G. Sherwood
Managing Partner
Sherwood Associates;
former International Tax Counsel,
Kering
Doreen Small
Davis Shapiro;
former Vice President and General Counsel,
Ford Models, Inc.
Jeff Trexler, Esq.
Attorney / Associate Director
Fashion Law Institute
Ashley Valdes
Principal Counsel
Warby Parker
David Warren
General Counsel
Gucci
Brien Wassner
Partner
Sidley Austin LLP
Kenya Wiley
Founder and Policy Counsel
Fashion Innovation Alliance
The Fashion Law Institute's award-winning logo was designed by the globally renowned design firm Pentagram and has been featured in leading design media, such as the Communication Arts Design Annual (a trademark of the year, 2010 edition), Print 31st Design Annual, Adweek, Just Creative, and Michael Bierut's How to.
Privacy policy
Our privacy policy can be found here.
Top Ten: National Jurist on Fashion Law LLM
Looking to develop an area of legal expertise? The National Jurist recommends pursuing a Fashion Law LLM with the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham School of Law. More here, including observations by Professor Scafidi.
You might also want to note that the list of valuable areas of expertise also includes admiralty and maritime law, which can be quite useful in building a fashion law career for anyone interested in shipping & global trade.
