CA
NA
DA
PA
NDA/S
HUTT
ERSTOC
K.
CO
M
TO SAY THE RETAIL INDUSTRY IS CHANGING
would be an understatement. Rapidly
evolving consumer habits and the rise of
e-commerce have sent brick-and-mortar
stores scrambling.
More than a dozen major companies,
including The Limited and Payless, have
already declared bankruptcy this year,
while others, such as Sears and Macy’s,
are closing store locations in droves.
As large department stores and big box
chains get their bearings in an increasingly digital retail sales landscape, legal
work is heating up in several areas.
“It’s a time of enormous change,” says
Jay Jorgensen, executive vice president
and global chief ethics and compliance
officer for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. “I’m
actually surprised by how fast and how
significantly it’s changing, even though I
was expecting it.”
Jorgensen says today’s challenges cen-
ter on two key areas: attracting customers
and utilizing technology to improve effi-
ciency and minimize risk. For example, he
says, Wal-Mart has spent years digitizing
its refrigeration systems around the world
to improve food safety.
For Deborah White, senior executive vice president and general counsel of
the Retail Industry Leaders Association
(RILA), a trade group, attorneys serving
as general counsel must now play the role
of “strategic adviser” to their companies
during this period of disruption. “The
challenge for retailers in terms of how
they remain relevant is very much top of
mind for all of the top executives within
the retail industry, including the general
counsel who serve them,” she says.
White points to the crucial role that
capturing consumer data plays in helping
retailers keep an edge over competitors.
Corporate legal teams are working with
their business counterparts to give com-
panies “the visibility they need in terms
of consumer data, while also respecting
consumers’ privacy desires and making
sure the data remains secure,” she says.
THE GO-TO OUTSIDE COUNSEL
Jorgensen says he works closely with two
outside firms at Wal-Mart, Jones Day
and R. McConnell Group, a compliance
boutique firm in Houston. He says he’s
witnessed an increasing demand in recent
years for attorneys with strong expertise
in compliance work across the industry,
which has resulted in the need for compliance officials both in-house and at outside firms.
“There’s a booming demand right
now for people who have a deep expertise
in ethics and compliance programs,” Jor-
gensen says. “Just being a generalist—‘I’m
a litigator and I’ll help you build up your
ethics and compliance program’—that
doesn’t cut it anymore.”
White, meanwhile, says she has
noticed that retailers are seeking two
kinds of help from outside counsel: They
want “the trusted partner that can be
there for a lot of different things,” while
they are also looking to firms that can
quickly build case-specific knowledge
around the class action suits cropping up
against retailers.
In 2010 RILA founded a standalone
Retail Litigation Center, of which White
is president, that advocates for retailers in
judicial matters. Center members include
some of the country’s top retailers, such
as Whole Foods, Dick’s Sporting Goods,
and Home Depot, as well as large law
firms, including Baker Botts and Hunton
& Williams.
“More and more, what we see through
the Retail Litigation Center and other
areas is that, as the plaintiff’s bar pops
up with different kinds of litigation and
cases, you’ve got outside counsel that
very rapidly come up to speed in these
RETAILERS SEEK TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BIG BOX
BY VICTORIA FINKLE
industry insights
