Retail

The retail industry is uniquely informed by its interaction with customers. Much of the legal and regulatory framework governing the industry is aimed at protecting those customers, as well as the employees who engage them.

As retailers embraced e-commerce (while often maintaining their "brick and mortar" facilities) and e-commerce retailers expanded to physical stores, customer expectations increased, and the attendant legal needs grew more complex.

At Epstein Becker Green, we represent retailers of all types and sizes—big-box stores, grocery chains, pharmacy chains, restaurants, luxury stores, and much more—both on- and offline. We advise them on their myriad issues of labor, employment, and workforce management. We also bring a special focus to health care retail, a rapidly expanding field with its own particular compliance challenges.

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Employment, Labor, and Workforce Management Services

In a field characterized by high employee turnover, attendance issues, and a wide range of staffing problems, our attorneys handle all aspects of the employment relationship as applied to retailers. This includes defending clients in litigation, particularly in wage and hour disputes; claims of wrongful discharge, retaliation, harassment, and discrimination; and Americans with Disabilities Act (discrimination and accommodation) disputes.

Our lawyers advise retail clients on constantly changing regulatory and compliance issues, which vary widely by state and by locality. We help clients draft their employment agreements and employment policies, train their workforces in proper procedures, and provide day-to-day advice on employment matters. Retail clients also seek our guidance on employee benefits and executive compensation, immigration, and worksite enforcement matters and on the protection of their trade secrets and other proprietary information. We are also highly experienced in more traditional labor issues—collective bargaining, grievance arbitration, unfair labor practices, etc.—and we help retailers avoid or counter unionization efforts. Finally, our attorneys are squarely at the intersection of technology and the workplace, and they counsel our retail clients on potential legal risks to implementing technologies that leverage artificial intelligence, biometrics, and other similar workplace innovations.

Health Care Retail Services

As the health care industry continues to grow exponentially, it has given rise to a substantial retail component. We represent clients across the entire spectrum of health care retail, including pharmacies, clinics, and every type of ambulatory care facility. We help them address the myriad compliance obligations they face, including those pertaining to distribution, marketing, prescription drugs, reimbursement issues, and data privacy and security. We facilitate their transactions, including hospital-physician joint ventures, contract pharmacy arrangements, and in-store clinics.

We also represent health care retailers in disputes. Our skilled litigators regularly defend them in administrative charges—federal, state, and local—as well as in mediations, arbitrations, and commercial litigation matters. We also handle bankruptcies and out-of-court restructurings.

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