Fordham Offers New Fashion Legal Degrees

Fashion models walking in a line
Students at Fordham Law School now have the option of
pursuing two fashion law degrees.
Image:  Shutterstock
If your interests are in both fashion and law, there’s a new opportunity for you at Fordham Law School, which will be offering the world’s first degree in fashion law starting this fall.

Inspired by the increasing number of lawsuits related to copyright, intellectual property, and other fashion issues, Fordham’s Susan Scafidi and Diane von Furstenberg have teamed up to put together two fashion law degree options:  a Master of Law in Fashion (LLM) for lawyers wanting to focus on the fashion world and a Master of Studies in Law (MSL) for members of the fashion community who want to get a good legal grounding.

“There needed to be a field of fashion law where people were trained,” said Scafidi.  “Fashion companies have in-house counsel, but they aren’t specialized in fashion . . . A fashion lawyer can understand, empathize with, and act on behalf of clients in a technical and specialized industry.” Scafidi says.

Fashion law has actually been a growing niche in the legal profession.  Fordham established the Fashion Law Institute in 2010, as well as a Fashion Law Bootcamp summer program to address related issues.  But with the support of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, they were able to upgrade the training into a full degree program to be offered both full time and part time.  Courses will explore employment issues for models, data privacy, and regulating sustainability.

“Legal savvy, like business expertise, has always been an important component in building a successful fashion house or design career,” noted Scafidi. “It just hasn’t yet been recognized to the same degree….Every designer should have a minimum degree of legal literacy, if only to know when to seek a legal opinion — and to avoid being sent to sit at the kids’ table while the grown-ups make the legal decisions that will determine the future of their lives and labels.”



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