RLC Names Walgreens General Counsel to Board of Directors

Today, the Retail Litigation Center (RLC) announced that Elena Kraus, senior vice president & general counsel of Walgreens, had been elected to its board of directors. The RLC is the only organization dedicated to advocating the retail industry's perspective throughout the judiciary; it is directed by the chief legal officers of the country's leading retail companies. 

“We are very pleased to welcome Elena to the RLC board,” said Deborah White, president of the RLC and general counsel for the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA). “Elena brings significant experience in retail legal issues and deep knowledge of the industry in general and pharmacy in particular. The Retail Litigation Center has achieved significant victories in the courts this year on behalf of America’s retailers, but there is still much to be done.”  
 
In her role as senior vice president & general counsel, Kraus is responsible for leading the legal function of Walgreens. Since joining Walgreens in 1991 as a staff attorney, Kraus was director of transactional law and divisional vice president. In that role Kraus led a group of attorneys and legal paraprofessionals charged with providing legal services to the business units of Walgreens. Kraus graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and earned her JD from DePaul University College of Law. 
 
“I look forward to joining the RLC board and welcome the opportunity to be a voice for the retail community throughout the judiciary,” said Kraus. 
 
The RLC was founded in 2010 to serve as the voice of the retail industry in the judicial branch to complement the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s representation of the retail community in the legislative and executive branches. The RLC helps courts understand the retail community and the issues of greatest importance to it.  
 
Most recently, the RLC celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, a case that focused on a decades-old loophole that allowed online-only retailers to avoid collecting and remitting state sales tax. The RLC and its sister organization RILA, worked on a years-long strategy to support the case in South Dakota and build a robust amicus strategy at both the cert and merit stages. The decision marks a win for brick and mortar retailers, giving all retailers a chance to compete on a level playing field.  
 
In its brief history, the RLC has represented the retail industry in more than 100 amicus briefs that have been filed in federal and state appellate courts on a broad range of issues, including labor and employment, tax, intellectual property, data security, and more. As the Center focuses on its 2019 priorities, competition, payments, and innovation will take center stage. 

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The Retail Litigation Center is a public policy organization that identifies and engages in legal proceedings that affect the retail industry.  The RLC, whose members include some of the country's largest retailers, was formed to provide courts with retail industry perspectives on significant legal issues, and highlight the potential industry-wide consequences of legal principles that may be determined in pending cases.