How to Break into Fashion Law (Or Any Career That Seems Out of Reach)
FASHION LAW
Fashion law has only recently become a phrase that lawyers can say with a straight face (and many still can't). Fashion law overlaps retail law but also focuses on protecting the creative and artistic expressions inherent in fashion design, i.e., intellectual property: copyrights, trademarks, and patents.
When studying international intellectual property law in Turin, Italy, I chose a fashion-related subject for my final paper. I was teased quite a bit by my classmates for this decision. But I got the last laugh because I've spoken worldwide about fashion law.
I've trained lawyers, designers, law students, and fashion students. People, especially lawyers and wannabe lawyers, are universally curious and excited about a fashion lawyer's career. I'm always asked, "How do you become a fashion lawyer?"
PATH TO FASHION LAWYER
My path is not exactly the one that I would suggest. I have an undergraduate journalism degree and went to law school to focus on environmental law. I worked for an environmental company through law school and then worked in-house when I graduated until an automotive service franchise company asked me to come to work there as the sole attorney in-house. Accepting that job gave me a specialty in franchise law before I turned thirty years old. A few years later, I joined an international law firm as a franchise lawyer. After a few years, I realized that as much as I loved the salary and security, I hated the law firm lifestyle. So, I started my firm and left the country to move to Italy.
This move was before remote work was acceptable, especially bi-continental remote work. But I dreamed of living abroad, and I realized I could work anywhere once I was my boss. It wasn't easy, but it was doable.
While there, I made it my mission to become fluent in the language as quickly as possible. Eventually, I decided the best way to work in Italy as a lawyer was to get a degree in Italy, so I went for a Masters of International Intellectual Property Protection at the University of Turin.
My master's thesis compared the US and European laws protecting fashion designs. I won an internship and went to work for an NGO in Rome, and while there, I saw an ad that Fendi was looking for an Italian who was fluent in English. I convinced them that a mother-tongue English-speaking lawyer fluent in Italian was even better, and the rest is history: I got a job in Italy as in-house counsel to one of the top luxury brands in the world.
PREPARATION PLUS OPPORTUNITY
The point of this career breakdown is to show that, in my case, the adage, "Preparation plus opportunity equals success," seems to apply. If I hadn't gotten the LLM in Intellectual Property Law from an Italian University, if I hadn't written a thesis about Fashion Law, if I hadn't pushed myself to be fluent in Italian, or if I hadn't gone to law school at all — Fendi wouldn't have looked twice at me.
Also, whenever a crazy opportunity popped up in my life, I grabbed it. Maybe I wasn't 100 percent prepared, but I grabbed it anyway and plunged headfirst into self-education. When a door opened, I walked through. And if I didn't like the doors presented, I moved houses (or, literally, countries).
