The preeminent conference for manufacturing lawyers
Knowledge. Insights. Relationships.
Join the NAM Legal Center this November for the fifth annual Manufacturing Legal Summit – the preeminent conference for manufacturing lawyers addressing the latest pressing challenges across the legal and regulatory landscape.
What to expect at the Manufacturing Legal Summit: Knowledge. Insights. Relationships.
The Legal Summit was engaging and inspiring, with timely information that will help us navigate today’s business challenges. Kudos to NAM for organizing a great event!
Educational content focused on the ever-changing landscape for manufacturing lawyers.
The best and brightest minds from top law firms alongside seasoned in-house counsel sharing practical advice and strategies.
Hear from speakers offering unique perspectives on law and policy in the Nation’s capital.
Enjoy unparalleled networking opportunities with colleagues across the industry.
Engage and learn through CLE-accredited educational content and unique opportunities to network with manufacturing peers.
Two days in Washington, D.C.
Developing agenda – timing may shift as details are finalized.
As the tariff environment continues to shift, businesses face rising costs, strategic uncertainty, and growing pressure to adapt. This session will explore how changing tariffs and trade policy are affecting business decisions, cost structures, and supply chains, as well as how heightened enforcement and increased scrutiny from U.S. Customs and Border Protection are shaping the broader trade landscape. Attendees will gain insight into how companies can respond to manage risk, control costs, and stay competitive in a more complex global market.
The old labor and employment policy pendulum — predictable swings with each change in administration — no longer applies. Organized labor has new allies, agency priorities are shifting in unexpected ways, and the compliance landscape for manufacturers has fundamentally changed. Fisher Phillips attorneys will break down what’s driving this new environment and what in-house counsel need to know to stay ahead of it.
Rapid advancements in the use of Generative AI (Large Language Models) have created a complex set of intellectual property questions and concerns, primarily around the use of data for training these models and the copyright status of AI-generated materials. These issues vary across jurisdictions and are the subject of a series of high-profile disputes and court cases — the results of which could have far-reaching consequences for companies and their legal advisers. The session will discuss key legal issues and regulatory developments across jurisdictions, including copyright and training data; ownership of AI-generated content; licensing considerations and compliance; recent legal developments and case trends; and practical guidance for businesses and legal teams.
Panel featuring U.S. Supreme Court litigators and the NAM’s Chief Legal Officer Linda Kelly.
Manufacturers face legal risks that rarely stay in one lane. Litigation strategy, regulatory reporting, product liability approaches, serious incident response and vendor disputes can all affect one another—and a move that helps in one forum may create challenges in another. This session will offer practical guidance for coordinating litigation defense with regulatory compliance and enforcement strategy. Panelists will discuss how in-house teams and outside counsel can manage parallel proceedings, protect privilege, align messaging, address settlement considerations and decide when to fight, cooperate or recalibrate.
As organizations increasingly adopt artificial intelligence, lawyers play a critical role in addressing professional responsibility, ethics, governance, and risk management considerations. This session explores how legal and business teams can collaborate to support AI initiatives across the enterprise, from the factory floor to the legal function. Panelists will discuss practical approaches to implementing AI in ways that promote efficiency, advance business objectives, and integrate governance, ethics, and legal oversight throughout the process.
With heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks
The political pendulum may have swung in Washington in 2025, but believing that such a change diminished PFAS as a serious business risk is a red herring. The Trump EPA has largely retained the prior administration’s regulations, and a patchwork of PFAS regulations continues to proliferate in the states, along with PFAS-related litigation in courtrooms across the country. In this session, CMBG3 Law attorney John Gardella will provide a thorough update on the PFAS legal and regulatory landscape including real-world examples demonstrating how PFAS continues to be a significant business disruptor for manufacturers.
Over the past 25 years, local governments have increasingly pursued a new brand of litigation against manufacturers—one that rests on two distinct rationales. First, cities and counties are recasting routine municipal costs—litter cleanup, vehicle theft, community services—as compensable harms, suing food and beverage producers, automakers, and small manufacturers alike to shift the burden from taxpayers to corporate balance sheets. Second, localities are using lawsuits to regulate products outright, effectively legislating through the courtroom what their states or the federal government has chosen not to regulate, or cannot regulate, through the normal policy-making processes. This is the climate litigation model, now expanding to plastics, processed foods, and other product categories, where the lawsuit itself becomes the regulatory instrument—forcing changes to products and manufacturing processes under threat of massive damages rather than through legislation or agency rulemaking. This panel examines the proliferation of both litigation models, their practical impact on U.S. manufacturing, how courts and legislatures are responding, and what manufacturers—individually and through organizations like the National Association of Manufacturers—can do to confront this emerging litigation threat.
Accreditation
We have partnered with a premier CLE accreditation vendor to handle accreditation for the Summit. We estimate our program constituting 9 credit hours, including 1 hour of Ethics credit (in most jurisdictions). We will seek accreditation in any state requested by a registrant. Be sure to take advantage of this great opportunity by filling out the CLE section during your registration.
Where we gather
775 12th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
We’re excited to welcome you to the four-star Marriott at Metro Center. Located in the heart of downtown DC where business, culture, food and the arts intersect to create defining experiences. You will enjoy a completely renovated space with upgraded amenities, new dining experiences, 24 hour newly equipped fitness center and refreshed indoor pool.
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Marriott Metro Center ($329/night plus taxes and fees). To make reservations, call the Marriott Metro Center at (202) 737-2200 and reference the group code “2026 NAM Legal Summit” for the group rate.
You can also make reservations online by clicking here. The cut-off date for reservations is Thursday, October 21, 2026, however once the room block is filled (which may be before cut-off) room rate and availability are not guaranteed.
Join us in November
The Manufacturing Legal Summit registration is reserved for in-house manufacturing counsel. If your organization is a vendor or law firm, the association would be pleased to discuss a sponsorship package. Please contact Dani Gorman at [email protected] or (733) 243-8314.
Member Rate: $749
*Early bird registration rate: $649
Non-Member Rate: $1,049
*Early bird registration rate: $949
*Early bird registration ends September 10, 2026.
This fee covers all Summit sessions, CLE accreditation, receptions and materials for 1 person.
Sending multiple attorneys from the same company?
Contact Ronalyn Coston for a discounted group rate at [email protected] or at (202) 637-3103.
Cancellation policy: Registration is fully refundable until October 11.
Our commitment
The Manufacturing Legal Summit, hosted by the NAM Legal Center, is the preeminent conference for manufacturing lawyers, addressing the latest pressing challenges across the legal and regulatory landscape. We are committed to creating a professional, respectful, and collaborative community where all participants feel valued and safe.
To ensure a healthy, pleasant, and valuable learning environment for all, the following conduct must be observed by anyone participating in an NAM Legal Center event.
NAM events are harassment free environments. Behavior that endangers or belittles other attendees will not be tolerated. All participants at any NAM event must exercise consideration and respect in their speech and actions by:
It is the policy of the NAM, and it is the responsibility of every participant, to comply in all respects with federal and state antitrust laws. No activity or discussion at any NAM meeting or other function may be engaged in for the purpose of bringing about any understanding or agreement among members to (a) raise, lower, or stabilize prices; (b) regulate production; (c) allocate markets; (d) encourage boycotts; (e) foster unfair trade practices; (f) assist monopolization, or (g) in any way violate federal or state antitrust laws.
To facilitate sharing of experience and to foster a true sense of community, please feel free to use the contact information provided by event attendees in order to build a personal network; however, do not share such information with others and never use such information for marketing purposes or to promote a service without the participant’s consent.
Unacceptable behavior from any participant at an NAM Legal Center event will not be tolerated. If a participant engages in unacceptable behavior or violates this Code of Conduct, the NAM may take any action it deems appropriate, including removal from the event (without refund) at which the violation occurred. Egregious violations may result in more severe sanctions.
If there are any questions regarding this Code of Conduct, we encourage you to discuss the matter with NAM Legal Center staff.
Made possible by
The Manufacturing Legal Summit registration is reserved for in-house manufacturing counsel. If your organization is a vendor or law firm, the association would be pleased to discuss a sponsorship package.
If you are interested in sponsorship opportunities for this exclusive event, please contact Dani Gorman, NAM Director of Strategic Partnerships at [email protected] or (733) 243-8314.
2026 Legal Luminary Sponsors
Ballard Goes Beyond: We provide strategic legal services and business solutions of the highest quality, delivered with uncommon efficiency. With more than 600 lawyers in 15 U.S. offices, we bring industry knowledge augmented by tenacity, initiative, and a drive for results – creating an outsized advantage for clients in litigation, transactions, and regulatory compliance.
CMBG3 is a science-grounded, national trial-ready law firm operating where law, medicine, and science intersect — in industries regulated by the FDA, EPA, ADA, and OSHA.
We counsel corporations facing toxic product and environmental risks through litigation, national litigation management, consulting, and compliance.
By combining legal mastery, scientific insight, and business instinct, we help our clients anticipate risk, protect continuity, and prevail — keeping them three steps ahead.
Foley & Lardner LLP is the preeminent law firm that stands at the nexus of the Energy, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Innovative Technology, and Manufacturing Sectors. We look beyond the law to focus on the constantly evolving demands facing our clients and act as trusted business advisors to deliver creative, practical, and effective solutions. Our 1,100 lawyers across 26 offices worldwide partner on the full range of engagements from corporate counsel to intellectual property work and litigation support, providing our clients with a one-team solution to all their needs. For nearly two centuries, Foley has maintained its commitment to the highest level of innovative legal services and to the stewardship of our people, firm, clients, and the communities we serve.
With hundreds of attorneys in the U.S. and across the globe, Fisher Phillips advises and advocates for employers on some of the most complex and high-profile workplace matters. We leverage our employment experience, tech and thought leadership credentials to keep our clients ready for what’s next. By understanding both their industry and business, we help them adapt faster to a faster-changing world, realize possibilities sooner and more effectively, and stay steps ahead when everything is on the line.
Greenberg Traurig, LLP’s Manufacturing & Supply Chain Industry Group, comprising attorneys from over 20 practice areas, provides thoughtful and strategic advice to clients with manufacturing operations. We adopt a business-focused approach to legal services, equipping manufacturing clients with the ability to effectively navigate unexpected issues, grow their business, and innovate for the future. The team provides industry-specific legal advice aimed at risk reduction, operational efficiency and consistency, and enhancement of profitability and productivity. Recognized as a 2025 BTI “Best of the Best Recommended Law Firm” by general counsel for trust and relationship management, GT has more than 2,850 attorneys across 49 locations in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, enabling the delivery of innovative and strategic legal services across borders and industries.
Meritas is a global alliance of leading independent law firms dedicated to helping manufacturing clients access top-tier legal expertise anywhere in the U.S. and across the world. Through its market-leading member firms, Meritas provides access to 7,500+ lawyers with 190 independent law firms globally and local representation in 108 U.S. markets, empowering you to do business anywhere in the world.
Founded in 1889, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. has 19 offices in the United States and London, with more than 500 attorneys serving manufacturing clients in the health, science and technology sectors in areas ranging from product liability defense and commercial litigation to intellectual property prosecution and litigation, environmental and toxic tort, privacy and data security, and public policy.
2026 Champion Sponsors
Faegre Drinker is a full-service firm known for transactional, litigation, and regulatory capabilities and driven by a commitment to service excellence. Clients are at the start — and the heart — of everything we do. We listen to understand your priorities. We bring you fresh ideas that work. And we deliver excellence — without arrogance.
FBT Gibbons is a national law firm focused on serving companies operating and investing in the middle market. With 800 lawyers across 26 offices, the firm provides legal counsel enriched with valuable business and market context, particularly in corporate, litigation, and regulatory matters within the energy, finance, life sciences, and manufacturing sectors. FBT Gibbons is committed to delivering excellent service to its clients, colleagues, and the communities in which it operates.
Join manufacturing counsel from across the industry November 12–13 at the Marriott Metro Center in Washington, D.C.
