Deborah White (left), general counsel with Retail Industry Leaders Association, and Meredith C. Slawe (right), partner with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld.

The Retail Litigation Center, which represents the legal views of leading U.S. retailers, will celebrate its 10th birthday next spring in an industry struggling to adapt to changing consumer buying habits.

The center is the separate litigation arm of the Retail Industry Leaders Association in Washington, D.C., and is considered the voice of the industry in the judicial system. Open to all retailers and select law firms, the center is "growing and hanging in there over time," according to Deborah White, general counsel for the association and head of the litigation unit.

White told Corporate Counsel in a recent interview that the center has filed over 150 amicus briefs on retail issues, averaging about 20 briefs a year.

With no legal staff beyond White, the center "strategically partners with outside counsel to draft our briefs," she said. "The tone must be reflective of the gravitas of the industry."

For example, in a July brief before the Tennessee Supreme Court, the center agreed with prosecutors that the state's burglary statute could be used to prosecute a serial shoplifter who had signed a "no trespass" agreement with the store. It spelled out the harm that repeat shoplifters do to both retailers and consumers.

While the larger retail association has 75 corporate members, the center has 35 companies and 15 law firms as members, White said. The association is open to various levels of executives, but she said the center only accepts in-house counsel and their select outside counsel.

The center and the association's list of general counsel members is a who's who of leading retailers across the industry, including Walmart Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., Walgreens Co., 7-Eleven Inc., Home Depot Inc., PetSmart Inc. and CarMax.

James Hanlon, general counsel of the U.S. division of IKEA, said he joined the association and the center in January 2018 after his company moved him to the U.S. from Ireland.

"It provides general counsel who work in prominent brands an opportunity to align with other industry leaders," he said, "and to share best practices on how to navigate the legal landscapes."

Hanlon said general counsel most often only deal with their own in-house legal teams and outside counsel, and it was refreshing to get the perspective of other prominent retailers.

He also was just named to the 11-member board of directors for the litigation center, which is a 501(c)(6) entity.

As a director, he now helps oversee the center's newest initiative, created this year—a defense division to deal with mass action litigation against retailers. White described them as "these waves of mass actions litigations generated by plaintiffs' firms for their own benefit and not for society's benefit."

She said, "What you see right now are trends in terms of gotcha litigation, in which a plaintiffs firm will find a statute, look for a private right of action and bring suit."

She cited one statute meant to stop robocalls to consumers, but which the plaintiffs bar used to bring mass litigation alleging that each text message sent to a consumer is a separate violation and subject to liability.

"There are hundreds, if not thousands, of those cases out there, where no one was actually injured," White said. And, she added, the consumer will end up paying the price for all that litigation through higher prices.

The center chose two law firms as founding members of the defense division: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and McGuireWoods.

The division tries to help in-house counsel deal with such mass action litigation at the front end, before the litigation becomes an expensive wave. The division is developing tools to help counsel anticipate where the plaintiffs bar intends to hit and to prepare practical solutions before they do.

Center members meet twice a year to share insights and best practices. The center also offers phone conference calls to discuss issues in groups as well as "boot camps" to focus on a specific timely issue in-depth.

Meredith Slawe, a partner in Akin Gump's litigation group, works closely with the center. Her law firm recently presented a boot camp to center members on the California Consumer Privacy Act, which goes into effect Jan. 1.

Slawe said she has found that "the Retail Litigation Center has a very vibrant and engaged leadership. It's a unique organization, and its membership wants to talk about risk mitigation and advocacy."

She said some of the retailers "compete in the same space but share common enemies in terms of litigation, banding together where appropriate."

Earlier this year Akin created a cross-practice group to target the retail industry because it is being rocked by dramatic change, mostly by digital innovations. The group is led by Slawe and her fellow Philadelphia litigation partner Kathryn Deal, along with Los Angeles labor and employment partner Gregory Knopp and Dallas corporate partner Garrett DeVries.