In the fashion world, lawyers are popular accessories

  The law of fashion is a growing niche practice in New York and Los Angeles, the two poles of about 200 billion U.S. apparel, with both companies and design houses hire lawyers.

Their charge is to negotiate real estate transactions, advising on mergers and acquisitions, which are protected by copyright, with labor disputes, and in some of the most respected fighting claims.

Requests can be crucial for the fashion brands. Witness French designer Christian Louboutin shoes, which is an important legal victory before the Fashion Week in New York, as an appellate court for the trademark red soles of his shoes Heels won grants.

Fashion had his law school begins six years ago when New York City began to Fordham Law School offers courses, with the proviso that made the effort, if at least three students were not wanted.

Since these classes are part of the curriculum elsewhere, including the New York University School of Law and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, plans to launch its first course in fashion law in January.

"I'm a monster"

"A colleague told me the other day that I created a monster," said law professor Susan Scafidi, academic director of the Institute of Fordham Law mode.

"Fashion is the right of a real career choice," said Lois Herzeca, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and co-chair of the 80-lawyer fashion, retail and consumer products practice group.

Industry groups have confirmed no statistics on the number of lawyers who are in fashion, so that it is difficult, if more emphasis on the right of the mode or practice that existed long before now given a name.

Currently, Gibson Dunn is one of the few large companies have a practice of a dedicated mode, and many fashion houses are working without a lawyer.

But Barbara Kolsun, General Counsel, Stuart Weitzman and former Advocate General at Kate Spade and 7 For All Mankind, said many fashion houses are being built or in-house legal groups widened during the last five years.

Loyola Law Dean Victor Gold said he was skeptical about starting a law program mode, but changed his mind after looking at the students request the size of the trade and industry is becoming increasingly global.

"This is one area should schools of law," he said.

Kolsun who wrote the first textbook on the law of fashion in 2010, quoted in the global impact of the trillion-dollar industry because of increased specialization. It engages law students who want to work in the right way to do an internship at Stuart Weitzman and many have continued to work internally in places like Burberry, Coach, she said.

A former intern, Julie Zerbo, a student at the Columbus School of Law in Washington, DC, the authors Blog Mode law that emphasizes the knock-offs, emerging brands and analysis of disputes related to the industry such as the recent e CAS by Christian Louboutin.

Another former student who graduated Rakiat Gbadamosi, Fordham and serves as a liaison between the team and prom evening dress brand business Jovani Fashion Ltd. and its outside counsel. Once it is authorized, admitted to practice in New York, she will use her one-woman legal team.

Gbadamosi also has a degree from Parsons The New School of Design, Fashion during the aw at Fordham and detained four fashion companies.

"For me, that's what I wanted. I had a passion for the industry," she said.

Lawyers fashion cites a desire to work in a creative industry, even though their work is paperwork on the side. Thanks Ali Marquart, consultants Wilhelmina Models, noted fashion industry is forced itself every season and new industries invent lawyers must change with it.

Herzeca, the Gibson Dunn lawyer, echoed this sentiment, saying that new legal issues attract the gifts in the industry, but it has its charm brick-and-mortar to. "It's nice to walk into a store and say I have a lot to do to get this product on the shelf," she said.