Agenda 2020

This is a working agenda and subject to change.

3 September 2020

09.30

Welcome, and guide to the day

by your Conference Chair, Jacqui Harper, Founder, Crystal Business Coaching

09.35

The future of Luxury in a post-pandemic world

Michael Ward, Managing Director, Harrods

09.55

Negotiating the ‘new normal’: Lessons for Luxury

Panel discussion:

Panel Chair: Kate Anthony Wilkinson, Group General Counsel & Company Secretary, Mulberry

Georgina McManus, Group General Counsel, Manolo Blahnik

Ashleigh Hegarty, General Counsel & Privacy Officer, Charlotte Tilbury

10:20

Protecting your brand

Scott Gelin, Director, IP Enforcement (Global), Apple

10:35

Refreshment break

11:00

Workshops, choose one from the following

Workshop #1

STAGE 1

All Aboard: Whistle-stop Tour of Legal Changes Now and on the Horizon

Hosted by Taylor Wessing

The session will quickly summarise new and forthcoming legal changes to be aware of and prepare for, including:

  • Platform to Business Regulation
  • Post-COVID flexible working
  • Post-Brexit design protection
  • New insolvency law
  • EU Accessibility Directive

Jason Rawkins, Head of Fashion & Luxury, Taylor Wessing

Anjali Chandarana, Associate, Taylor Wessing

Simon Jupp, Senior associate, Taylor Wessing

Amy Patterson, Partner, Taylor Wessing

Jo Joyce, Senior Associate, Taylor Wessing

Anna McCaffrey, Senior Counsel, Taylor Wessing

Workshop #2

STAGE 2

The Internet: Luxury’s saviour or saboteur
Hosted by Mishcon de Reya

Luxury was slow to embrace the internet; luxury is about scarcity, unattainability and exclusivity whereas the internet promotes accessibility and mass, so there is an obvious conflict. However, there has been a real shift in how luxury brands harness the power of online channels to augment their image and broaden their reach towards a mainstream market, with many placing influencer and social media led strategies at the heart of their retail experience and engaging increasingly with the gaming world. Amid the opportunities, luxury brands are encountering a new raft of challenges. This panel discussion will look at some of the legal aspects including:

  • Brand dilution: Do luxury brands need to avoid diluting their brand when extending it through digital channels and collaborations?
  • Reputational issues: Using influencers required brand to loosen their creative control; what are some of the key considerations before embarking on these arrangements?
  • Data: We have seen newspaper headlines regarding the prospective fines being dished out for data breaches; how do luxury brands safely utilise data (from customer profiles and purchase histories through to social media comments and influencer feeds) to gain insight into consumer preferences and behaviours
  • Competition issues: Following the high-watermark of the Coty decision, how will luxury brands continue to preserve their exclusivity and branding in the battle with online platforms such as Amazon and eBay?

Panellists:

Moderator: Lewis Cohen, Partner, Mishcon de Reya

Workshop #3

STAGE 3

Anti-Counterfeiting: Protecting your luxury brand
Hosted by Alibaba

Panellists:

11:45

Workshops, choose one from the following

Workshop #4

STAGE 1

Sustainability and the power of Technology
Hosted by Baker McKenzie

This panel discussion will look at how technology can help progress the sustainability agenda and why this matters for luxury companies in the post-COVID world:

  • How has the COVID-19 pandemic confirmed the need for a sustainability-driven strategic agenda and accelerated the use of technology
  • What are the main enabling technologies and the latest innovation tools serving the luxury industry as we see an increased use of tech to advance transparency with the consumer and to promote more sustainable practices across the entire supply chain
  • How can blockchain be a transformative solution in leading CSR and traceability efforts
  • How can AI help understand consumer demand in order to adapt the consumer offer, strategy and supply
  • What other technologies are out there that can aid sustainability efforts
  • Are tech acquisitions driving luxury M&A?

Panellists:

    • Alyssa Auberger, Partner and Global Chair, Consumer Goods & Retail Industry Group, Baker McKenzie
    • Ben Allgrove, Partner, Global Chair, IPTech and Innovation Committee, Baker McKenzie
    • Sue McLean, Partner, IPTech, Baker McKenzie
    • Vanessa Grellet, Executive Director, ConsenSys

Workshop #5

STAGE 2

Insolvent Retailers – A Survival Guide for Brand Owners

Hosted by BCLP

The session will look at the following topics:

  • Pre-insolvency practices: Getting your house in order
  • Insolvency and CVAs: a user guide
  • Negotiating through the process
  • Lessons learned from recent luxury insolvencies (House of Frasers, Barneys of New York etc)

Ian Benjamin, Partner, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Rob Croxen, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal

Federica Pietrogrande, Managing Director, Gordon Brothers

12:25

Round table discussions

Join groups of your peers for a facilitated discussion and the opportunity to drill down on specialist topics – more details to follow:

  • Baker McKenzie Sustainability and the power of Technology Q&A
    Baker McKenzie’s team will moderate a Q&A and follow up roundtable discussion with your peers on the topic of “Sustainability and the power of Technology”, further to the live panel discussion
  • CMSProtecting Prestige: selective distribution and parallel imports for luxury brands
    CMS’ luxury law team chair a discussion on how to devise effective strategies for managing selective distribution arrangement and parallel imports and what the limits of these strategies might be. The discussion will be led by Tom Scourfield, co-head of CMS Consumer Products group and an experienced IP practitioner who regularly advises brand owners on how to leverage their IP rights to protect their selective distribution arrangements, while at the same time abiding by UK and EU competition rules, and Brian Sher, co-head of the CMS Competition Team and an expert in the field of EU and UK competition law who regularly advises brands on the competition aspects of their distribution arrangements.
  • DentonsLicense to Kill: How to expand your brand through Licensing and Franchising.
    The workshop will cover the structuring options available to luxury brands when expanding internationally including master franchise, area development, joint venture, licensing and franchising. Best practice regarding partner selection, due diligence and background checks, global franchise laws and popular international expansion models.
  • Fladgate: Employment issues post lockdown
  • Epstein Drangel LLP – Recapturing Brands in The Online Marketplace: Cost-Neutral Litigation and Enforcement
    Epstein Drangel will share their experience in investigating online platform sellers on Alibaba, AliExpress, Wish, DHGate, eBay, Amazon, etc. and filing multi-seller litigations in New York in which they obtained temporary restraining orders restraining online storefronts and freezing seller assets for well-known fashion brands such as Off-White, Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman, Golden Goose, Palm Angels, Palace, Marcelo Burlon & Heron Preston.
  • McCarthy Tétrault – How luxury companies can navigate the fast-expanding maze of cross-border regulations
    Keeping up with the onslaught of constantly changing opening and reopening measures has been a struggle for many businesses this year. What do cross-border luxury brands do when legislation comes from every level of government and varies across jurisdictions? Our interactive session will explore how some cross-border brands are managing in the current environment, how they deal with different and ever-changing regulations when they operate nationally or internationally, and emerging trends as we move to recovery. This session will be of interest to cross-border luxury businesses who want to hear practical solutions for managing the web of regulations across jurisdictions and ways to benchmark common interests and concerns.
  • Luxury Law Summit: Collaborations in Luxury – how fashion and entertainment intertwine
  • Luxury Law Summit: New Luxury: New Markets

13:15

Lunch break

13:45

The Cost of Exclusivity

The Cost of Exclusivity will explore the challenging landscape luxury brands face in a time of cancel culture. We will assess the importance of legal teams to share knowledge with customer experience executives and learning and development teams to implement effective inclusive end to end training practices. We look briefly at how expensive the cost of exclusivity can be when it transcends product and alienates the growing majority.

Highlights

  • How to be exclusively inclusive
  • The importance of the legal team to CX Design
  • Legal and financial exposure when service is exclusive, not inclusive

Christopher Lacy, Assistant Professor, Fashion Management, Parsons School of Design

14:05

Workshops, choose one from the following

Workshop #6

STAGE 2

Trade, acquisitions and foreign subsidies: What new EU rules might mean for luxury and retail brands in the wake of Brexit

Hosted by Van Bael & Bellis

As the UK gets ready to officially leave the EU, and against the backdrop of a global health and economic crisis, the European Commission is turning its attention to dealing with the distortive effects caused by foreign subsidies in the Single Market.

The European Commission has recently released a White Paper and launched a public consultation to seek input from stakeholders that should help the EU to develop future regulations that touch on several key legal areas for brands: trade law, merger reviews and state aid.

While these areas typically have little or no overlap, the White Paper puts forth the potential for investigations that could involve all three areas, meaning that brands need to be aware of how to navigate the interface between trade and competition issues now to effectively mitigate risk later, as foreign subsidy investigations, which might target also the UK post-Brexit, may interfere with the supply chains of brands and their M&A activity.

Panellists:

Workshop #7

STAGE 1

The Power of Ethics – from ethical working practices to business integrity

Hosted by Hogan Lovells

Sustainability, ethical sourcing, and brand purpose are increasingly central to brand value. This workshop will discuss how consumer companies, and luxury brands in particular, are incorporating business integrity into their daily businesses – from procuring ethically sourced or organic products, ensuring fair pay and safe working conditions, using environmentally-friendly materials, to implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives—and attendant regulatory and legal issues.

Workshop #8

STAGE 3

Building a successful globalisation strategy – navigating legal challenges with new routes to online growth.

Hosted by Dentons

The global pandemic has reset the chess board both off-line and online. This session will cover legal challenges faced by Retail Luxury Fashion & Beauty companies implementing new technologies and alternative growth plans and enhancing digitalisation.

Babette Marzheuser-Wood, Global Head of Franchise Group, Dentons
Jenny Kim, General Counsel, Mercari
Aliza Reger, CEO, Janet Reger

14:50

Workshops, choose one from the following

Workshop #9

STAGE 1

Luxury in LATAM: Pandemic Challenges

Hosted by Cervieri Monsuárez

‘Luxury in LATAM: Pandemic Challenges’ Roundtable intends to create a discussion between luxury brand representatives, in order to share the experiences and challenges that this pandemic has brought to them in terms of their businesses, intellectual property and more. Dr. Virginia Cervieri will present an introduction of LATAM’s current situation before and after the pandemic. That’s when the invited luxury brand representatives will explain how their businesses have been affected by this worldwide situation. Arrigo Cipriani, architect Rafael Viñoly and Roxana Sullivan from MCM Worldwide, will give an insight into the impact this had on restaurants, constructions and luxury goods, which were some of the most affected businesses.

 

Panel Chair: Virginia Cervieri, Socia Directora, Cervieri Monsuarez

Arrigo Cipriani, Restaurateur

Roxana Sullivan, Senior IP Counsel, MCM Worldwide

Workshop #10

STAGE 2

Collaboration and consolidation opportunities in fashion, luxury and retail post-COVID?
Hosted by Winston & Strawn

Covering:

  • Key changes, trends and opportunities in the current market
  • Change management: insights and practical suggestions on navigating change
  • Collaboration and consolidation: investment and acquisition market trends
  • Global investment strategies and expectations in fashion, luxury and retail
  • Sustainability and climate change: challenges and opportunities

Panellists:

  • Panel Chair: Zoe Ashcroft, Partner, Winston & Strawn
  • Richard Kestenbaumb, Partner, Triangle Capital
  • Jeffrey Hellman, Vice President & Assistant General Counsel, PVH Corp.
  • Julia Cook, CEO & Founder, Change Management Group

Workshop #11

STAGE 3

Luxury Protection Plan: How to DEFINE. PROTECT. ENFORCE. Your IP Rights Worldwide and Stop the Spread of Counterfeit Products During the COVID-19 Era
Hosted by Epstein Drangel LLP

This discussion will look at how we assist our luxury brand clients in developing and implementing tailored anti-counterfeiting programs in the United States and China taking into consideration each brand’s industry, markets, consumer base and current & potential counterfeiting issues – particularly in the COVID-19 era.  Our clients will discuss their experiences in navigating challenges posed by the pandemic and the effect COVID-19 has had on business and brand protection. Our discussion will focus on the luxury market’s increasing need for cost-effective brand protection strategies and our Beijing office’s strategic approach to protecting and enforcing our client’s IP in light of the recent changes in the copyright and trademark laws in China coupled with our U.S. office’s establishment of innovative, cost-neutral strategies for addressing counterfeiting on online marketplace platforms.

15.30

LA Confidential: Luxury Technology in a pandemic world

Asher Levine, Founder, Asher Levine

15.45

Lessons for luxury: Navigating the future

Panel discussion:

16.10

Awards winner announcements and interviews

17.10

Meet and Greet / time for one-to-one meetings