Supply Chain
Multidisciplinary Team Helps Create, Strengthen and Protect Every Link of your Supply Chain
The world runs on well-functioning supply chains, and we are here to help you protect and improve this essential part of your business. Streamlining the supply chain management process, ensuring regulatory compliance, and guarding against interruption have become more challenging than ever. At the same time, supply chain technology has advanced, improving continuity, efficiency and traceability. Risks are on the rise, and so are opportunities. Foley’s Supply Chain team is a multi-disciplinary group of lawyers who take a holistic approach to addressing supply chain issues in an increasingly volatile world. We are committed to developing legal strategies tailored to the requirements of your industry and the needs of your company.
Challenges remain, but innovation and new technologies are improving the operation and management of supply chains. We are with you every step of the way to help find creative solutions to ensure efficiency, traceability and continuity, so your business can thrive now and far into the future.
Foley & Lardner LLP is the National Association of Manufacturers’ go-to firm for Supply Chain
Highlighted Areas of Focus
Commercial Contracting
We understand that contracting is a key part of your business, and our attorneys have experience across the private and government sectors advising on contract drafting and negotiations, including the preparation of state-of-the-art form document suites to streamline your entire contracting process. We also facilitate productive negotiations with vendors and customers.
Indirect Procurement
Our attorneys have worked with world-class manufacturers across industries to improve their indirect procurement processes and outcomes. We use best practice models for indirect procurement RFPs and contracts applicable to consulting, IT implementation services and software licensing, outsourcing, data analytics and other services. Our models cover both legal and business elements of these transactions and allow your team to focus on your company’s unique needs. Because we are not building from the ground up, the time and cost savings are significant and outcomes are enhanced.
Intellectual Property Protection
At every point, we bring the integrated approach you need, immersing ourselves in your business and your bedrock intellectual property. Foley attorneys deliver legal and business solutions to prosecute patents, manage patent portfolios, develop monetization strategies, and define joint development IP rights.
Distribution and Franchise
We advise on distribution and franchise matters, working with you to analyze the issues that arise when bringing in new dealers, distributors or franchisees. At the end of the dealer relationship, we navigate the dealer termination landmines found in state statutes across the country, and provide robust representation when a termination or dispute goes awry.
Antitrust
We bring our business-oriented counsel to antitrust matters, advising on antitrust compliance in the supply chain, and helping you navigate interactions with competitors, joint ventures, and acquisitions.
Government Contracting
Effective government contracting relies on a deep knowledge of state and federal regulatory requirements and compliance obligations. We assist companies in complying with their government contracts by taking a practical approach to developing flow down terms and conditions, policies, procedures, checklists and training programs.
Environmental, Social & Governance
Our contract compliance counsel spans environmental and social matters, from U.S. Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency requirements, to child labor laws, conflict minerals reporting, and the sustainability commitment of vendors.
Breach of Contract; Litigation
With a team of litigators well-versed in supply chain issues, we are fierce advocates in court and before regulatory agencies. In breach of contract claims we champion our clients’ positions in state and federal courts and arbitration tribunals, with particular sensitivity to the additional risks inherent in supply chain disputes involving customers and suppliers. We also defend against product liability claims and consumer class action litigation relating to warnings, defects, or unfair competition.
International Trade
We bring our regulatory and business acumen to our clients operating across borders, helping multinational companies contend with the aggressive application of U.S. economic sanctions, export control, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for suppliers, particularly in high-risk environments like China, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
Recent Thought Leadership
- Supply Chain Disruption: Foley’s Supply Chain Disruption Series will help your company view these challenges as opportunities to make your supply chain an asset and not a hurdle to overcome. Both buyers and sellers will come away with the knowledge and strategies necessary to become more resilient, in order to be ready for the next event to rock the supply chain.
- Foley Equipped: AI-Powered Contract Review Is Here. Are you Foley Equipped? Foley Equipped is designed to provide faster turnaround times leading to more deals closed all with the goal of mitigating risk. With this technology, we aim to turn around vendor contracts in as little as one business day (subject to conflicts clearance), which can be crucial time saved for your company. This gained efficiency is critical to getting deals and business done faster.
- Blockchain in Supply Chain: As more companies explore blockchain technology to enhance efficiency and visibility across their supply chain, fluency in blockchain is essential. Foley’s “Blockchain in Supply Chain” series provides an introduction to the present and future use of blockchain technology in the supply chain. Stay in the know with our series of articles that delve into the basics of blockchain, the applications of blockchain in supply chain networks, and legal developments in the blockchain space.
- Accelerating Trends: Foley’s Accelerating Trends is an interactive report that provides frameworks and tools to address key supply chain considerations in moving production or sourcing out of China. Foley’s online tool assesses your business resiliency and the potential for new technologies and business processes to facilitate innovation and efficiencies.
- Supply Chain Desk Reference: Foley’s Supply Chain Desk Reference is a streamlined guide that covers the topics of battle of the forms, distribution supply chain options, warranties, product recall and hazard reporting issues, indemnification, consequential damages and disclaimers, and nondisclosure agreements.
Attorney Spotlight
The insights I have gained through decades of supply chain counseling allow me to provide clients with dependable, timely and effective guidance.
The federal government has taken an increasingly aggressive approach in recent years in imposing government-unique regulations on the supply chain—we routinely assist companies in complying with such requirements as well as preparing supplemental purchasing terms and conditions that flow down the necessary clauses, and risk, throughout the supply chain.
My experience managing international regulatory risk in the supply chain enables me to quickly identify strategies for helping multinational companies cope with the aggressive enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions, export controls, and anti-bribery laws abroad.
I routinely advise automotive clients on supply chain management and contract enforcement, in particular with limited or sole-source suppliers and just-in-time suppliers.
As a U.S. Navy veteran who formerly operated in the intelligence space, I bring a diverse perspective to my clients backed by sharpened attention-to-detail and heightened awareness of timeliness, which translates into strategic and effective supply chain counseling.
My experience as the editor of a LexisNexis treatise on international distribution and agency agreements enables me to quickly connect clients with supply chain lawyers across the globe.
I am dedicated to developing integrated knowledge about our clients and have an aptitude for focusing on important legal issues in commercial contracts.
As a Transactions Practice Group attorney, I assist our clients in M&A due diligence, purchase and sale agreement drafting and business integration issues relating to supply chain. Assessing the target’s supply chain as a strategic asset – or a liability generator to be managed – is a key aspect of any M&A transaction involving companies with complex supply chains.
I am a proven trial attorney and trusted advisor dedicated to representing automotive and manufacturing clients across a variety of industries, specializing in complex supply chain disputes, warranty and recall litigation and international arbitration.
