For 35 years Barbara Kolsun was a leading fashion industry attorney. She started the legal departments and was the first General Counsel of three start-ups, Kate Spade, Seven for all Mankind and Stuart Weitman, was Assistant General Counsel of Calvin Klein Jeans and Westpoint Stevens and was an associate at several law firms including Dechert and Amster Rothstein & Ebenstein. While in private practice and as a consultant her clients included Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Sam Edelman and many other fashion companies. She has probably been through more mergers than most lawyers in the fashion business.
She is the co-founder and director of the FAME Center at Cardozo Law School, the first law school program providing training and development opportunities relating to the representation of businesses driven by the creative process. She is a Professor of Practice at Cardozo, teaching Fashion Law and the Fashion Law Practicum. She is co-editor of The Business and Law of Fashion and Retail, the only casebook on fashion law (Carolina Academic Press, 2020) and co-editor of three other books on the subject. She developed the first JD/MBA course in Fashion Law at NYU Law School and also taught at Fordham Law School and has guest lectured at dozens of law schools and fashion schools. She has chaired the Luxury Law Summit in both London and New York, was Chairman of the Board of the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition and was a consultant with Star Vietnam, a USAID project, lecturing on IP enforcement in all major cities of Vietnam. She has spoken and published widely on fashion law around the world. She has been honored with several lifetime achievement awards.
Barbara Kolsun
Professor of Practice and Director, FAME Program
Cardozo Law School