Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Consumer Product Safety

There’s a difference between knowing the rules have changed and knowing the new rules
If you’re in the consumer products business, the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) marked the end of business as usual. This sweeping new legislation strictly regulates every step of bringing a product to market. The swift employment of the Act has left many manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers scrambling to fully understand the daunting changes in order to comply with the requirements. At the same time, a new Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) chairman and full five-member commission bring a new era of regulatory scrutiny, investigations, and unprecedented penalty exposure. Businesses will have to revisit the way they think about compliance and become more proactive about reporting and addressing potential trouble spots.

The risks for missteps are substantial. The penalty exposure for failure to report or comply has risen sharply from a maximum of $1.8 million to $15 million per violation. If you are a manufacturer, retailer or distributor of consumer products, you need a strong advocate to represent you before the CPSC.

Working Productively With the CPSC
Manatt’s Consumer Product Safety practice group is composed of attorneys who have been intimately involved with consumer product safety issues for decades, as well as the related areas of media libel and advertising. We serve on the advisory board of the Bureau of National Affairs Product Safety & Liability Reporter, a leading resource for business on product safety issues. In addition, our partners have extensive experience with CPSC staff and management agencywide and are well-versed on the CPSIA.

Since Manatt understands business and the complexities of the new Act, we can guide you through the process to minimize potential exposure. From a detailed evaluation of your company’s readiness, through testing, certification, labeling, advertising, and reporting, we’ll help you meet your business objectives and regulatory requirements. We work closely with the CPSC to facilitate an open and productive dialogue. Many firms have a reactive “no contest” approach to CPSC issues, missing opportunities to avoid problems in the first place and to advocate for the company in the face of an inquiry or investigation. Manatt takes a data-driven, analytic and rational approach to effectively advocate for the company and resolve issues.

Knowing When to Report and How to Survive a Recall
We can help you determine when a report is appropriate and when corrective action may be required. If necessary, we will efficiently and effectively negotiate the scope of a recall, the corrective action, and the terms of public notice. We have successfully represented many companies, large and small, before the CPSC and, in many cases, have successfully shown that the reported issue did not warrant corrective action.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Whether it’s dietary supplements (nutraceuticals), cosmetics, over-the-counter drugs, or medical devices, our FDA lawyers will help you understand and comply with the often complex FDA regulatory requirements applicable to your products. And, with an extensive practice representing manufacturers, marketers, and retailers of all sizes, we understand the significant challenges that come with selling products that are subject to overlapping FDA and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jurisdiction. Our goal is straightforward: To understand our clients’ products and strategies and develop creative approaches to meeting marketing objectives while staying within the bounds of the law.

While our work with the CPSC and the FDA covers 98% of all consumer products, we’re also fully capable of helping manufacturers that are regulated by other agencies, including the FTC, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Manatt in Action
Since speculation can often make a bad situation much worse, we keep CPSC matters in the strictest confidence and manage the flow of accurate information during a recall, employing the media to reach affected consumers. We have managed critical situations in virtually every spectrum of manufacturing, including home appliances, power tools, consumer technology, and video games. To prevent the dissemination of damaging misinformation about our clients or their products, we have successfully communicated pre- and post-publication cease and desist demands to many print, broadcast and online media outlets, including:

• CBS and local affiliates
• NBC and local affiliates
• ABC and local affiliates
• Fox and local affiliates
• 20/20 News Magazine
• Examiner.com
• News Channel 8
• The Bergen Record
• People Magazine
• The Washington Post
• LA Times
• PC World Magazine
• MiamiHerald.com
• 10News.com
• Allbritton Communications

Diversity at Manatt

Manatt considers diversity to be a fundamental component of our institutional identity. As a law firm, we have a professional responsibility, and as individuals, we have a personal responsibility to our respective communities. Incorporating diversity into our culture allows us to enhance the high-quality, creativity and excellence in legal services that our clients have come to expect.

Manatt has invested a significant amount of human and financial resources in our own diversity program. Our philosophy is simple: include women and minority lawyers at all levels of Firm leadership and promote diversity in the legal profession through our support and active involvement in various minority civic and bar organizations.

The mix of our minority and women attorneys has consistently exceeded the national average among the country's top law firms. Our talented mix includes minority and women lawyers serving as heads of offices, members of the firm's Board of Directors and management team, and chairs of some of the firm's most important practice groups.

Inclusive Culture
Our progressive culture allows us to maintain a growing mix of women and minority lawyers, and the results illustrate this commitment.  The American Lawyer ranked our Firm 29th (in the top 12%) on its Diversity Scorecard for the largest 250 law firms in the country for 2009.  Multi Cultural Law Magazine included our Firm on its 2008 lists of the Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity, Top 25 Law Firms for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and Top 25 Law Firms for Openly Gay/Lesbian Americans.

Despite our progress and diversity success, we can do better.  Our challenge extends far beyond exceeding national averages.  Our plan cannot succeed if we focus only on recruiting minority and women attorneys.  The true challenge and measure for achieving success lies in creating and preserving an inclusive environment where our minority and women lawyers will stay, progress, prosper and succeed.  We have implemented a formal diversity program designed to enhance our recruiting and retention of diverse attorneys through an executive mentoring program intended to cultivate personally and professionally meaningful relationships between our diverse lawyers and our partners. 

Our commitment to diversity exists in a living document – a plan – that is concrete, easy to understand and publicly available.  The plan demonstrates to every law school student, lateral associate candidate, lateral partner candidate, recruiter, existing client, and potential client that we are serious about creating a workplace that mirrors the breadth of the communities where we and our clients live and work.

We focus on the following key areas to accomplish our mission.

Targeted Recruitment Effort
At Manatt, recruiting women and minority attorneys does not end on law school campuses. Our recruiting efforts focus on locating talented women and minority lawyers at all levels. At law schools, we seek out and interview students who share our core values in ways shaped and enhanced by their own experience. Manatt's 2005 Summer Program was the most diverse in the Firm's history. Our nine 2005 Summer Associates included two African-American students, three Hispanic students, one Asian-American student and three Caucasian students. Five of these nine students were women.

Mentoring as a Cornerstone
Minority attorneys who join Manatt as new or lateral hires immediately become the focus of a mentoring program. They are paired with senior attorneys who take an active role in encouraging their career development. Mentors actively work with their protégés, helping them form business plans and involving them in firm-wide marketing and development opportunities. Management holds mentors accountable for their roles and their protégés' progress at the Firm, including reviewing their efforts as part of the evaluation and compensation process.

Access to Opportunity
Success is a matter of talent and opportunity. At Manatt, we believe that the key to retaining talented minority attorneys -- and therefore the key to the success of our diversity efforts -- is providing a distinctive experience that offers clear access to professional accomplishment. We provide women and minority attorneys with important responsibilities and leadership opportunities in client development activities, complex litigation, large transactional matters and high-profile community and civic organizations. We also encourage and support minority and women attorneys who take leadership positions within the firm and outside in the community at large.

Long-Term Commitment
We challenge ourselves to make our young lawyers feel valued, involved and invested in the future of the firm. We know that they will eventually occupy the most important financial, management and executive positions at Manatt. Our professionals thrive in an atmosphere that encourages and supports responsibility, ambition, and entrepreneurship. We offer true opportunity equal to individual commitment to success and advancement. That's the history of opportunity at Manatt, where professionals with talent and drive are rewarded with a nurturing, dynamic and energizing climate.

Promoting Diversity
Promoting diversity in the legal profession requires both an investment of money and time. Our women and minority attorneys are prominently involved and hold leadership positions in some of the most important minority civic and bar organizations in the country including:

• Asian Americans of Equality
• Asian Pacific American Legal Center
• Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association
• California Association of Black Lawyers
• California Black Chamber of Commerce
• California Women's Law Center
• Chilean Association of Attorneys
• D.C. Commission on Asian & Pacific Islander Affairs
• Hispanic National Bar Association
• Inner City Law Center
• International Human Rights Committee of the Association of the Bar of City of New York
• Korean American Bar Association
• Korean American Coalition
• L.A. Conservation Corps
• La Raza Galeria Posada
• Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
• Los Angeles Urban League
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
• NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund Board
• Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association
• The Association of Women in International Trade
• Women Lawyers Association
• Women's Bar Association of District of Columbia
• Women's Forum of Washington D.C.