–Catlan McCurdy, Attorney
The Tory Burch C. Wonder saga has drawn to a close, and sadly for this captive audience member, due to a settlement agreement. On the evening of December 26, 2012, Tory Burch announced that she and her ex-husband, Chris Burch, had come to an agreement to settle all pending legal claims between the couple. If you recall from my earlier blog post, the dispute centered primarily around Chris Burch opening a clothing store called C. Wonder that looked suspiciously similar to a Tory Burch store and sold suspiciously similar looking clothes.
The dispute was likely resolved in this expedited fashion due to interested investors looking to invest with Tory Burch, LLC, a company the Burches founded together in 2003 while they were still married. In her announcement, Tory said that BDT Capital Partners and General Atlantic were making minority investments in the company. Unsuprisingly, Tory did not reveal many details of the settlement agreement, but she did say that Chris will retain some stake in the company.
So while I should be happy that this episode has drawn to a close for Tory, I can’t help but feel disappointed that the settlement also puts an end to the rants of Delaware Judge Leo E. Strine Jr. Among his many colorful observations of the legal proceedings, he haphazardly described the lawsuit as a “drunken WASP fest,” despite the fact that Tory Burch is Jewish, and asked if C. Wonder was related to Wonder Bread. Judge Stine was later chastized for his actions by the Delaware Supreme Court, who did not find his tangets amusing whatsoever. But hey, when was the last time a judge encourage you to read Cheever, see the Broadway revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and watch “Mad Men?”