Cox Smith serves as regional and national counsel to companies that make, distribute and transport a wide variety of consumer and industrial products. We represent a leading regional grocery wholesaler and a major producer of building materials, each with their own trucking fleets, on the respective distribution, manufacturing and transportation issues that apply to their businesses. Other manufacturing clients make specialty marine transport equipment for offshore drilling operations, and specialty patient care products that must comply with a wide range of state healthcare regulations as part of their distribution.

• We have served as general counsel to one large regional food products wholesaler for several decades, as its sales have grown from $40 million to nearly $1 billion.
• For another Texas-based food product distributor and retailer, our general counsel work included more than a decade of help and guidance as they became one of the largest employee-owned companies in the country through a unique ESOP conversion.
• During more than 30 years of service to a manufacturer of specialty hospital beds and wound healing systems, we guided the company through a public offering, a going-private transaction, and another conversion to publicly held status.

Client focus

• Manufacturers of products ranging from medical devices and pharmaceuticals to marine vessels and building aggregate materials
• Distributors of food and beverage products
• Company-owned trucking fleets of manufacturers and distributors

Services to manufacturers
Lawyers from virtually all of our major practice areas contribute their efforts to help make our manufacturing clients more effective and competitive. We help manufacturing clients of every size and at every level of technology deal with the financial, operational, technology and regulatory issues that directly affect their business success. That includes guidance on:

• Benefits: health and retirement plans, compensation, employee stock ownership
• Corporate: entity structure, financing, governance, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions
• Employment: workplace regulatory compliance and dispute resolution
• Environmental: regulatory compliance and resolution of hazardous waste disposal disputes
• Intellectual property: protection of patents, copyrights and trade secrets
• Real estate: facility purchase, sale, leasing and construction issues
• Tax: local, state and federal tax compliance and planning

Our practice involves all aspects of the business relationships between manufacturers and the distributors of their products. Our lawyers help protect the interests of manufacturing clients when drafting distribution agreements, and advise on complex issues involving warranties, sales contracts, pricing and antitrust compliance. We also assist clients in settling distribution controversies, including lawsuits over distributor termination.

Services to distributors
We advise distributors and wholesalers on the contractual terms that govern their regional activities, helping them to comply with all applicable state and federal laws on pricing and other competitive issues. Because a number of our clients are wholesalers and distributors of food and beverage products to both retailers and restaurants, we advise them on the complexities of negotiating supply agreements in compliance with licensing and consumer protection regulations. For clients involved in the distribution of alcoholic beverages, we assist in navigating through liquor licensing and permitting laws.

Beyond these issues, we work with distributors and wholesalers on all aspects of their day-to-day operations, from employment law compliance to the contractual arrangements for installing information technology systems.

Services to transport operations
A number of our manufacturing and distribution clients have their own trucking fleets. We advise these clients on the legal issues that apply to both their equipment and their drivers. That includes structuring equipment and driver lease arrangements, securing proper insurance coverage, complying with state and federal regulations that cover private carrier operations, and defending accident and personal injury lawsuits.