The Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group representing some 200 retailers, manufacturers and suppliers, today launched the Retail Litigation Center in effort to strengthen the group's influence over cases of interest to the industry.

RILA President Sandy Kennedy says they've been working on the litigation center for a number of years and aspire to be "as good" as the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform in giving businesses an opportunity to weigh in on a variety of litigation.

"We've been involved with the Chamber and others in partnering on different amicus briefs we thought had an impact on the retail industry," Kennedy said. "So this gave us an opportunity to set up focused organization separate from RILA that would be lead by some of the important legal minds in retail that could direct our activities."

Guided by a board of directors consisting of vice presidents from industry titans such as Wal-Mart, Target and J.C. Penny, the Center will file amicus briefs on behalf of retailers at the appellate level on issues involving their workforce, intellectual property and privacy concerns.

RILA has had successes in the past challenging the Maryland Fair Share Act, which would require retailers with 10,000 or more employees to pay a certain percentage of payroll for employees' health benefits.

When asked why RILA challenged the Fair Share Act, Kennedy explained they thought it was "a very discriminatory mandate that singles out one industry -- retail -- and certain sizes of retail employers as well. We have a very different kind of work force -- they tend to be younger, we have part time/seasonal workers -- so it's important we're able to tailor to our individual workforces."

Protecting its coalition of business-owners is the main goal of RILA and the legal center, who are co-sponsoring an annual conference this year to generate ideas and legal strategies amongst members. The center does not intend on using the conference or its network to fundraise for political campaigns.