The Fashion Law
Masterclass.
Africa's most rigorous fashion law training programme — equipping lawyers who want to specialise and creatives who need to understand their rights. Five years. Hundreds of graduates. One community.
2026 marks the 5th year of the FLI Africa Fashion Law Masterclass. Five years of building the legal talent Africa's fashion industry needs — and this year's edition is our most comprehensive yet.
Secure Your Spot →What It Is
Where Fashion Meets the Law. In the Classroom.
The FLI Africa Fashion Law Masterclass is the continent's only structured, practitioner-led training programme covering the full legal landscape of Africa's fashion industry. It is the programme that has trained some of Africa's sharpest fashion law minds — and it is now, in its fifth year, more comprehensive, more connected, and more impactful than ever.
The Masterclass is built for two distinct audiences: legal professionals who want to build or deepen a specialisation in fashion law, and fashion industry professionals who need to understand the legal framework governing their work. Both tracks are taught by qualified practitioners with direct, current experience in African fashion law — not academics working from textbooks, but lawyers who have sat across the table from the clients, disputes, and policy questions the industry actually produces.
Completing the Masterclass does more than sharpen your knowledge. It admits you into the Fashion Legal Network — FLI Africa's exclusive professional community for everyone who has gone through the programme. More on that below.
What You Will Learn
Eight Modules. The Full Picture.
Module 1
Introduction to Fashion Law in Africa
The legal landscape of Africa's fashion industry — understanding the frameworks that govern design, production, retail, branding, and trade across African jurisdictions, and why the continent's legal diversity demands practitioners who know the terrain.
Module 2
Intellectual Property for Fashion
In-depth coverage of trademark, copyright, trade dress, and design rights as applied to fashion — with practical guidance on filing, enforcement, and managing IP portfolios across African markets and internationally.
Module 3
Contracts & Commercial Agreements
Fashion-specific contracts — designer collaboration agreements, licensing deals, retail and distribution contracts, agency agreements, and manufacturing terms — with a focus on the clauses that matter most and the mistakes made most often.
Module 4
Model Rights & Talent Law
The legal framework governing models, talent, and agencies — contracts, image rights, AI and synthetic likeness rights, payment disputes, workplace protections, and the specific vulnerabilities that make this one of African fashion law's most urgent areas.
Module 5
Sustainability & Environmental Law
The evolving legal obligations of fashion businesses around environmental practice — Extended Producer Responsibility, greenwashing regulation, supply chain due diligence, and the circular economy frameworks being developed across African jurisdictions.
Module 6
Digital Fashion & Emerging Technology
E-commerce law, AI and fashion design rights, NFTs and digital ownership, data protection, virtual fashion, and the legal implications of the platforms and tools reshaping how African designers create, sell, and protect their work.
Module 7
Dispute Resolution & Enforcement
Navigating IP disputes, contract breaches, and industry conflicts — litigation, mediation, arbitration, and the specialist resources available through the African Fashion Ombuds & Dispute Resolution Centre.
Module 8
Fashion Law in Practice — Case Studies
Real scenarios drawn from FLI Africa's legal clinic experience and practice — working through the disputes, structures, and decisions that define fashion law work in Africa, with discussion led by practitioners who handled them.
- Format In-person in Lagos and live virtual sessions — attend from anywhere on the continent.
- Duration 8 weeks · One 3-hour session per week.
- CPD Qualifies for Continuing Professional Development credit for legal practitioners.
- Assessment Case study analysis and practical exercises throughout.
- Certificate FLI Africa Certificate in Fashion Law — awarded on completion.
- Entry to Network All graduates are admitted to the Fashion Legal Network upon certification.
Complete the Masterclass. Join the Network.
The Masterclass gives you the knowledge. What comes next gives you the community.
For Masterclass Graduates
The Fashion Legal Network — Your Professional Home in African Fashion Law.
The Fashion Legal Network is the exclusive professional membership community for everyone who has completed the FLI Africa Fashion Law Masterclass. It is not a mailing list and it is not a social media group. It is a curated, active professional community — the only pan-African network dedicated specifically to fashion law practitioners, researchers, and advocates.
Entry to the Network is through the Masterclass. This ensures that every member shares a common baseline of knowledge, a commitment to the field, and a relationship with FLI Africa's work. The result is a community where connections are genuinely useful, conversations are genuinely substantive, and membership genuinely means something.
What Network Membership Includes
Exclusive Legal Resources
Access to FLI Africa's full resource library: research publications, policy briefs, legal guides, contract templates from the Toolbox, and the complete archive of the Journal of African Fashion Law.
Members-Only Masterclasses & Deep-Dives
Advanced sessions available only to Network members — covering specialist topics, jurisdiction-specific issues, and emerging areas of fashion law that go beyond the core curriculum.
Priority Conference & Summit Access
Early registration and member rates for the Fashion Law & Business Conference and PAFALAPS — Africa's two most important fashion law gatherings.
Network Member Directory
A searchable directory of all Fashion Legal Network members, organised by jurisdiction and specialisation — the most efficient way to find a fashion law colleague, referral partner, or collaborator.
Policy Working Groups
Invitations to participate in FLI Africa's policy research projects and advocacy working groups — where members contribute directly to the legislative and regulatory work the Institute carries out.
Quarterly Network Newsletter
Legal updates, opportunities, community news, and commentary from across Africa's fashion law landscape — curated specifically for practitioners in the field.
Peer Community & Referrals
A professional network that spans 54 African countries — built on a shared foundation, active by design, and genuinely useful in practice.
2026 Is the Year to Join.
Five years in, the FLI Africa Fashion Law Masterclass has trained and connected Africa's most committed fashion law professionals. If this is the year you take your practice or your understanding to the next level, this is where you start.