Product Stewardship

The Product Stewardship Group of Farella Braun + Martel provides comprehensive legal services for product designers, raw material suppliers, fabricators, manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers  throughout the United States and internationally. The group is comprised of attorneys in relevant practice areas, including Product Law, Environmental Law, Wine Industry Law, Food and Beverage Law, Commercial Counseling and Business Litigation. This enables us to take a multidisciplinary approach to serve our clients' unique legal needs and business objectives-whether they do business in North America, Central or South America, Europe, Asia or Africa.

Our attorneys have extensive experience with all facets of product stewardship, including product design, raw materials/component part controls, fabrication, manufacturing, labeling, life cycle analysis, disposal, plant siting and closing, terms of engagement/codes of conduct, documentation and information management, contract design and management, auditing, recalls, international trade negotiations, domestic and multi-national regulatory compliance and product stewardship integration with related company management systems.

Our product stewardship attorneys are skilled in assisting clients in selecting a team of experts and consultants in a wide variety of disciplines and coordinating their work for comprehensive and cost-effective stewardship advice.  We are proud of our domestic and international reputation as credible and effective stewards who have brought timely solutions to our clients' product stewardship problems worldwide.

Representative engagements of our Product Stewardship Group have included:

• Service as global product stewardship counsel for Levi Strauss & Co. for more than 15 years.
• Product stewardship, federal and state compliance, and liability defense counsel to numerous manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers in a wide range of product-related industry sectors.
• Service on product stewardship assignments for Visa, Inc. and other multi-national companies in the electronics manufacturing, chemical, food products, transportation, construction and other industries.
• Service as product stewardship and product litigation counsel for W.R. Bradley Company.
• Designated the sole approved product law advisory counsel on Consumer Product Safety and Proposition 65 issues for members of both the American Apparel and Footwear Association and The American Hosiery Association.
• Successful product law litigation representation on more than a thousand significant product liability lawsuits.
• Teaching product law counseling and litigation for bar associations and universities around the United States.

Many of our attorneys began their careers with U.S. EPA, the Justice Department or a U.S. Attorney's Office.  We are nationally recognized for our experience in environmental compliance counseling and regulatory representation, domestic and international complex product liability and class action litigation, defense of government and private enforcement actions, health and safety planning and management, sustainability planning and program development, intellectual property protection and insurance coverage representation in a wide range of product-related industries including manufacturers and distributors of drugs and pharmaceutical devices, office products, agricultural and industrial chemicals, trucking and transportation, concrete and other construction materials, electronic goods, credit cards, apparel and footwear, food, wine and bottled water, fire sprinklers, piping systems, home furnishings and portable buildings.