NRF appoints former federal prosecutor Marissa Bostick as general counsel

The National Retail Federation has hired attorney Marissa Bostick as senior vice president and general counsel, bringing in a former federal prosecutor with a background in brand protection and counterfeit enforcement to run the trade association's legal operation.

Bostick will advise NRF president and chief executive Matthew Shay and the board on legal, regulatory and reputational risk. Her brief covers litigation, governance, antitrust compliance, tax-exempt and political-law matters, intellectual property, contracting, privacy and cybersecurity, alongside management of the in-house legal team.

Shay said: "Marissa's diverse experience as a prosecutor and litigator in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, combined with her work representing a global retail and technology company, makes her an ideal choice for this role. Her insights and perspective will be indispensable as we work to achieve NRF's policy and legal goals on behalf of our members."

Bostick joins from Sideman & Bancroft, where she was the inaugural partner and head of the firm's Washington, DC office. Before that she was global head of litigation at the Motion Picture Association of America and a founding member of Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit, the enforcement team the platform set up to pursue sellers of fake goods. She served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, is a Fulbright Scholar, and began her career at O'Melveny & Myers in New York after taking her JD at Columbia Law School.

"NRF has long been the leading voice for retail on Capitol Hill and in courts across the country," Bostick said. "Retail touches every community large and small, and I look forward to bringing my experience in litigation, brand protection and policy to help NRF's members navigate an increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscape."

The appointment gives the association a legal chief with counterfeit and IP enforcement experience at a point when its stated policy priorities include organised retail crime, tariffs and card interchange fees. NRF litigates directly as well as lobbying, filing suits of its own, joining actions brought by member companies and other trade groups, and submitting amicus briefs in cases affecting the industry.

The federation says retail is the largest private-sector employer in the United States, contributing 5.3 trillion dollars to annual GDP and supporting 55 million jobs, or more than one in four.