Retail

Ogletree Deakins has extensive experience advising retailers, with clients ranging from brick-and-mortar retailers to online merchants, and small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations. We represent companies in a range of retail sectors, including but not limited to:

discount stores
department stores
luxury retailers
home goods and specialty stores
home improvement centers
grocers
pharmacies
online retailers
car dealerships
pet supply stores
bookstores
electronics stores

We have deep experience and resources to help retailers solve the problems and challenges they encounter. From the sales floor to the distribution center, and from disability access requirements to wage and hour compliance, our Retail Industry Group is experienced with all facets of the retail industry and the labor and employment issues it faces.

The Retail Industry Group includes attorneys experienced in advising and representing retailers across a wide range of labor and employment matters. Our team of knowledgeable attorneys is spread across the country and around the world. Our attorneys include nationally recognized leaders, as well as former officials of federal and state labor agencies, such as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency.

Ogletree Deakins leverages its extensive industry and legal experience to recognize current challenges and trends impacting retailers and formulate best practices and solutions for employers. We also provide our retail clients with cutting-edge legal advice and strategic guidance combined with cost-effective compliance and training tools. From single-store operations to global retailers, the Retail Industry Group brings practical solutions and value to our clients.

Affirmative Action and OFCCP Compliance

Ogletree Deakins understands that many retailers are government contractors and are subject to rules and regulations enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and various state agencies. Members of the firm’s Government Contracting and Reporting Practice Group work with retailers on affirmative action programs, reporting requirements, data management, and compliance with the OFCCP’s often-changing requirements.

Benefits

Ogletree Deakins has a large team of employee benefits and executive compensation lawyers who advise retail clients on benefits issues, including the full array of employer-sponsored retirement and welfare plans across all sectors, the Affordable Care Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), incentive and other bonus arrangements, and other federal statutes.

Class and Collective Actions

Ogletree Deakins has a wealth of experience defending class and collective actions brought against retailers in federal and state courts across the country, as well as with enforcement actions brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of a class of employees. This experience extends to claims arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), ERISA, the Equal Pay Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and a variety of other federal and state laws. Our class action attorneys have successfully defended claims brought against retailers involving allegations of discrimination, harassment, misclassification of retail managers, unlawful deductions from earnings, meal and rest period violations, and violations of other federal and state wage-and-hour laws. Our California Class Action and PAGA Group also has particularized experience defending class and collective actions under California’s unique laws.

Data Privacy

Our data privacy attorneys advise retail clients on prevention of and response to data breaches, best practices regarding data storage, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance, benefits-related privacy matters (other than those involving HIPAA), data privacy requirements during cross-border mergers, and drafting or revising policies to comply with multijurisdictional data privacy requirements.

Disability Access

Our Disability Access lawyers have extensive experience helping retailers face the many challenges presented by Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other disability access laws. From defending class actions, to ensuring compliance with federal and state building standards and the laws governing website accessibility, to navigating complicated regulations such as those covering service animals, our disability access work is comprehensive.

Employment Law Counseling, Compliance, and Training

Our employment law practice includes day-to-day preventative counseling and policy and procedure review to ensure that our retail clients comply with the myriad federal, state, and local laws applicable to them. We advise retail clients on a wide range of human resources issues, including employee leaves of absence, disability accommodations, dress codes, employee performance management, and internal investigations. We also regularly draft and update employment policies and procedures, such as social media policies and employee arbitration agreements.

Employment Litigation

Ogletree Deakins’ litigators are experienced in all aspects of employment law and provide advice and counsel on complex employment litigation matters, including class and collective actions. Our litigation practice includes vast experience with the multitude of federal and state laws governing the workplace, including Title VII, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Equal Pay Act, the ADEA, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), the FLSA, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, and many other federal and state laws.

We represent retailers before the DOL, the EEOC, state agencies, and federal and state courts across the country. The Retail Industry Group includes many practitioners who have tried numerous employment cases on behalf of retail clients.

Governmental Affairs and Regulation

Through its Governmental Affairs practice, Ogletree Deakins offers legislative and regulatory affairs consulting to its retail clients. Ogletree Deakins has close working relationships with the leading trade associations serving the retail industry, as well as with Congress and the federal labor and employment agencies.

Our attorneys also provide experienced counsel to guide retailers through the complex regulatory system in the United States and to advise them on matters such as the U.S. Department of Transportation hours of service regulations that impact their distribution operations, and state and federal drug testing laws and regulations.

Immigration

Ogletree Deakins has one of the largest business immigration practices in the United States and provides a wide range of legal services to retail clients seeking temporary business visas and permanent residence for foreign national employees. Our Immigration Practice Group consists of experienced immigration lawyers who regularly work with retailers to develop appropriate strategies to facilitate the international transfer of skilled employees. Our immigration practice also assists retail clients in planning for the immigration impact of mergers and acquisitions, as well as providing guidance with regard to I-9 compliance and the anti-discrimination provisions related to I-9 compliance.

Cross-Border Solutions

Ogletree Deakins offers cross-border solutions to the key challenges faced by retailers managing a global workforce and establishing operations overseas for the first time. Our Cross-Border Practice Group assists retailers with global codes of business ethics and employee handbooks, global compensation and benefit plans, worker classifications, mobile workforce issues, investigations, data privacy, reductions-in-force, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and works council and trade union negotiations, as well as global management training.

Labor Relations

Ogletree Deakins has considerable experience handling complex and sophisticated traditional labor matters for retailers. This experience spans union organizing campaigns, including those seeking to certify micro-bargaining units, to corporate campaigns and efforts by groups such as the Retail Action Project (RAP). It also includes experience advising and representing retailers of all sizes and types in connection with collective bargaining negotiations, strike preparations, labor arbitrations, and NLRB proceedings.

Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets

Our Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets Practice Group attorneys assist retail clients in creating and implementing policies and practical steps to protect their valuable customer relationships, trade secrets, and other confidential information. They also help clients modify, design, and implement effective policies and agreements regarding noncompetition, invention assignment, and nonsolicitation of customers, vendors, and employees. When litigation is necessary, our attorneys provide fast, thoughtful, focused, effective, efficient, and, if necessary, aggressive representation.

Wage and Hour

Our wage and hour attorneys regularly conduct wage and hour audits for retail clients, design and review commission plans, and provide advice on issues such as meal and rest periods, classification of retail managers, deductions from earnings, child labor restrictions, and overtime earnings. Our attorneys have in-depth knowledge of federal laws, including the FLSA, the FMLA, and prevailing wage laws (such as the Davis-Bacon Act), as well as comparable state laws. Our California wage and hour attorneys have detailed knowledge of and experience with all aspects of California’s wage and hour laws.

Workplace Safety and Health

Ogletree Deakins’ Workplace Safety and Health attorneys practice nationwide, representing retail clients in all aspects of workplace safety and health. Our attorneys understand the specific and unique health and safety issues that can arise on the sales floor, in distribution facilities, and beyond. We work with retail clients on active shooter policies, workplace violence policies, investigations of workplace accidents, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspections and whistleblower complaints on safety issues, negotiation and resolution, and/or litigation of OSHA citations, as well as best practices and safety and health audits.