Events
Protected: CLE Materials – Storytelling
Storytelling
Join us in celebrating the Fashion Law Institute's 16th anniversary and the start of New York Fashion Week with a conversation about the power of storytelling in law and fashion, featuring award-winning designer and author Jeffrey Banks! As our gift to you, registration for this event is free -- yes, including the CLE credit. (If you would like a book signed at the event, we have a limited number available for purchase in advance.) Thank you for helping us create the field of fashion law and share it with the world, and here's to a very sweet 16!
DATE: Wednesday, September 9, 2026
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:
- Alexandra Steigrad, Media Reporter and Columnist, The New York Post
- Jeffrey Banks, Designer and Author
- 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.
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!
Protected: Inside Out 11 CLE Materials
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.
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.
Post #9991
Fashion Law Drafting
and
Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum
Applications for Fall 2026
Applications are now being accepted for the Fall 2026 Fashion Law Drafting and Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum courses! The classroom component of these courses is shared and is scheduled for Mondays from 6:00-7:50pm.
Application instructions: Submit your application below no later than Friday, May 22, at noon EST. The application should consist of a maximum 200-word statement of interest, a résumé, and a transcript. Applications sent after the due date will be given lowest priority.
Fashion Law Drafting (2 credits)
Description of course: This advanced seminar will develop students’ skills in drafting legal documents related to fashion law. Students will complete a series of drafting assignments of increasing complexity, such as a cease-and-desist letter, a licensing agreement, a retail lease, a manufacturing agreement, an employment agreement, a consignment agreement, articles of organization and an operating agreement for a limited liability company, a model release form, sweepstakes rules, website terms of use, and a privacy policy and/or a complaint, each related to an aspect of fashion law.
Administrative notes: By permission only. Co-requisite: At least one fashion law course taken prior or in-conjunction or equivalent experience (specify in application). Students who have taken Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum OR Fashion Law Practicum may NOT enroll in Fashion Law Drafting.
Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum (3 credits)
Description of course: This advanced seminar, which consists of both a classroom component and a fieldwork placement, will develop students' skills in the practice of fashion law. As part of the classroom component of the course, students will complete a series of drafting assignments of increasing complexity, such as a cease-and-desist letter, a licensing agreement, a retail lease, a manufacturing agreement, an employment agreement, a consignment agreement, articles of organization and an operating agreement for a limited liability company, a model release form, sweepstakes rules, website terms of use, and a privacy policy and/or a complaint, each related to an aspect of fashion law. In addition to the classroom component of the course, each student will be assigned to fieldwork placement at a fashion house or other fashion-related company, nonprofit organization, or law firm with a substantial practice in the field of fashion law.
Administrative notes: By permission only. Co-requisite: At least one fashion law course taken prior or in conjunction or equivalent experience (specify in application). The classroom component of this course is shared with Fashion Law Drafting. Students who have previously taken Fashion Law Drafting OR Fashion Law Practicum may NOT enroll in Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum.
All students who are provisionally accepted to Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum will initially be enrolled in Fashion Law Drafting (2 credits) by the registrar. Each student’s application will then be forwarded for consideration by a fieldwork supervisor – that is, a fashion house or other fashion-related company, nonprofit organization, or law firm with a substantial practice in the field of fashion law. Upon acceptance for a fieldwork placement, students’ registrations will be converted to Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum (3 credits). The law school cannot guarantee acceptance of a student into a fieldwork placement.
Students taking a clinic course or working (including at another internship) are advised against concurrently taking Fashion Law Drafting & Practicum due to the time commitment involved. (The fieldwork placement alone is typically 8-12 hours/week, according to the schedule set by the supervising company, organization, or firm; at a minimum it requires 42.5 hours of work over the duration of the semester as specified by the ABA – and usually many more.) Instead, consider Fashion Law Drafting, which shares the classroom component of this course but does not include a fieldwork placement.
Please do not attempt to contact the course instructors or potential internship sponsors during the selection process. If you have questions, please contact Ariele Elia, ariele@fashionlawinstitute.com.