Retail

Overview

Retail ranks among the top service industries across the Southeast. Yet the consumer landscape has endured tumultuous shift in the last few years and retailers – from the national chains and department stores to the mom and pop shops on Main Street – are all looking for near-term gains and long-term sustained growth.

Retailers needing counsel well-versed in federal, state and local laws that impact the consumer sector, turn to Turner Padget’s Retail Industry Team. We serve companies throughout the sector from suppliers, processors, distributors, retailers, restaurants, grocery stores and hotels, to the businesses that support these industries.

As a multi-service law firm, we handle the sweeping scope of issues retail industry members may face. Our transactional attorneys routinely help clients with corporate planning, restructuring, acquisitions and stockholder issues, while our litigators have an extensive track record of successfully representing retailers in compliance matters. We also help clients deploy a response plan when faced with a potentially damaging product or premises issue.

From local retailers to national retailers with a local presence, our team delivers the strategic advice and straight-talk that our retail clients require to ensure their brands’ success in the evolving business and legal landscapes.

Experience

Represented a restaurant in the largest salmonella outbreak in South Carolina history involving over one hundred claims, multiple class actions and two deaths. Despite limited coverage, we were able to successfully resolve all claims through numerous mediations, settlements and court approvals while protecting the owners and the restaurant and allowing them to continue in operation.
Defended a grocery chain in a week-long jury trial in state court in which a plaintiff claimed that she was injured on equipment that the retailer had failed to repair despite knowing of its defective condition. The plaintiff further claimed her injury developed into complex regional pain syndrome and she incurred more than $615,000 in medical bills after further complications from her treatment-caused paralysis that lasted over a year. While the trial judge directed a verdict against the grocer on the issue of liability, our attorneys were able to limit the verdict to only $25,000.
Negotiated settlements of multiple dram shop death claims arising out of an automobile accident involving the serving of alcoholic beverages to the at-fault driver.
Obtained summary judgment for a national retailer in a lawsuit over the abduction and murder of a customer from a store parking lot.
Represented numerous regional grocery store chains in premises liability suits.
Defended numerous retailers from workers’ compensation claims made by employers.
Assisted retailers with leasing and property management concerns.