Beauty & Fashion

Our expert solicitors empower beauty, fashion, cosmetics and personal care brands with bespoke legal solutions.

In this section

While styles and trends may come and go, a strong legal foundation is something you can always count on.

With experience across fashion, beauty, personal care, cosmetics and aesthetics, our experts provide tailored legal solutions to protect and empower a wide range of brands, models and influencers.

Whether you’re a multinational, independent or freelancer, we know what makes stylish brands tick. We understand the threats you face from copycats, infringers and counterfeiters, as well as the opportunities available for scaling-up, diversifying product lines and attracting investment.

We act as a one-stop shop for the legal requirements of beauty and fashion brands. From regulatory and compliance to property management and employment matters to intellectual property, beauty and fashion brands have to contend with many legal branches and a complex, fast-changing landscape, particularly with the rise of e-commerce.

Having worked with high-profile, household names across the UK beauty and fashion industry, trust our talented, multidisciplinary team to provide you with commercially-driven, pragmatic legal solutions, strategies and advice for growing your brand and business.

Meet the team

The expert law firm for fashion and beauty brands

Backed up by our capabilities as a full-service law firm, we can draw from a wide range of specialist lawyers to help you solve disputes with employees, employers, suppliers and customers while assisting with property matters, negotiating supply terms and buying or selling real estate and practices.

As an independent and purpose-led business — and certified B Corp — we operate with the same values you care about and strongly believe that business has a responsibility to bring about positive and lasting change.

Having been ranked as the best law firm to work for in the UK, we bring together a selection of the UK’s most talented beauty and fashion legal experts. Our firm is also ranked in numerous prestigious industry directories, including The Times’ Best Law Firms. We're proud members of the British Beauty Council — a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to solving the beauty sector's shared challenges through collective action and generating conversations with Government.

Our team is led by commercial lawyer and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney Hannah Fawcett, who acts for a wide range of clients across aesthetics, beauty, personal care, cosmetics and fashion. With experience in advising clients including Regatta, Craghoppers and Sosander, Hannah is recognised as a ‘Recommended Lawyer’ in the field of intellectual property by The Legal 500.

Aesthetics

We offer the complete range of legal services for aesthetics practitioners, with specialist expertise deriving from our foundation in dental law matters and professional conduct issues.

With an increased focus on prospective regulation and licensing requirements for non-surgical aesthetics, we’re well-placed to advise on legal issues arising in the fields of medical aesthetics and cosmetic surgery — from specialist skin clinics to cosmetic dentistry, laser treatments and injectables.

Professional conduct — with an increased focus on professional performance and competency — as well as the potential for stringent regulation within the industry — our specialist advisors are able to assist with a wide range of issues including fitness to practice, professional standards, licensing requirements and professional investigations.

Negligence — with a strong background in contentious matters and litigious proceedings, our team assists in defending or bringing negligence claims that arise from the provision of medical aesthetic and cosmetic surgery services. Our dedicated medical negligence team can advise in cases where botched procedures have resulted in actual physical injury.

Reputation management — we specialise in defamation, privacy issues and crisis management. Where false or intrusive content has been published that relates to aesthetic and cosmetic procedures (whether provided or received), we can take action to secure a retraction, apology and take-down. Our team also has extensive experience of data breach litigation, as well as dealing with data subject access requests and ICO investigations.

Corporate structuring and transactions — we assist with sales and acquisitions of aesthetic practices, property acquisitions or the leasing of premises, business franchising arrangements and exit strategies.

Beauty & personal care

We help salon owners, spa and leisure facility operators, and freelance hairdressers, beauticians and technicians to enhance and safeguard their operations.

From employment issues to property matters, our services include:

Employment — we provide day-to-day support on issues such as employment contracts, policies and procedures, as well as assistance with employee disputes and business immigration issues. We can advise on salon chair rental agreements, agency relationships and model waivers.

Contract drafting and negotiations — from supplier agreements to client consent forms, we help to prepare robust and tailored contracts and business terms that support your business operations and ensure long term protection — whether you operate an independent salon or provide freelance services.

Property — we help with all forms of property law issues to enhance and protect your business premises, including construction, plot sales, portfolio management, conveyancing, tenancy agreements, subletting arrangements and property disputes.

Brand protection and reputation management — as a service industry, your reputation is your most valuable asset. Our legal team specialises in trade mark protection and enforcing your rights against infringers, as well as assisting with defamation issues, adverse media coverage and breaches of advertising regulations (ASA).

Cosmetics

Our expertise in commercial, intellectual property and regulatory law enables us to provide tailored and comprehensive advice for cosmetics clients.

Our work has taken us across many product lines including colour cosmetics, makeup, skincare, haircare, fragrance, personal care and hygiene products, as well as beauty appliances.

Brand protection — we can identify, protect, enforce and exploit the valuable intellectual property assets that arise in your products and business, including trade marks, designs and copyright. You may not realise that unique features of your products or packaging can be protected to prevent copycats from jumping on the back of your success but we can help to identify and protect registrable rights and advise on how to commercialise them.

Influencers — if you’re looking to promote or expand your cosmetics product range, we have extensive experience with preparing brand-influencer contracts and ambassador agreements, as well as assisting with collaboration agreements and general licensing arrangements. Close relationships with many influencers and brand ambassadors place us at the forefront of dealing with influencer management queries, including compliance with brand guidelines and advertising standards (ASA).

Regulatory — it’s critical for businesses operating in the cosmetics industry to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, including around product labelling, cosmetic claims, advertising standards, packaging matters and green claims. We’re able to ensure that your products comply with ever-evolving standards, allowing you to innovate with confidence.

Commercial contracts — we support on all aspects of commercial contracts, from manufacturing and supply chain agreements to distribution contracts, preparing terms of business and advising on agency agreements, collaborations and joint ventures.

Fashion

With a focus on intellectual property protection and expertise in contractual and litigation matters, we provide the full spectrum of legal services to all manner of fashion brands — from luxury brands to start-ups and DTC to omnichannel operators.

Intellectual property — we identify, protect and commercialise brand names and product designs, with expertise in contractual matters such as licensing and collaborations, as well as contentious matters like infringement and counterfeiting.

Influencers — the use of influencers, ambassadors and social media marketing are integral to any successful modern brand. We have extensive experience with preparing brand-influencer contracts and ambassador agreements, as well as dealing with model waivers, content creator issues and advising on advertising regulations.

Property — we help both well-established high street names and expanding businesses with all forms of property legal issues, from construction to plot sales, portfolio management, conveyancing, tenancy agreements, subletting arrangements and property disputes. We can help you to navigate retail concessions and pop-up boutiques, as well as establish bricks-and-mortar property portfolios.

Commercial contracts — we assist with all contractual matters that arise in the operation of your fashion business, from designer agreements to distribution contracts, licensing arrangements and terms of sale. Our experienced team can also assist with data protection issues, blockchain verification matters, website terms and the development of brand guidelines.