949.252.9377
4 Park Plaza, Suite 1230
Irvine, California 92614
Transactions
Representative Matters
Registration and Disclosure – Responsible for disclosure, registration and annual renewals for several different systems covering more than two decades, all without incident or any claims of non-compliance.
Franchise Agreements -- Drafted new form of franchise agreement in mid-90’s that now covers more than 4000 franchised stores and provides the franchisor with remarkably powerful marketing flexibility and significantly increased national marketing funds. Drafted new forms of franchise agreement for several other systems, too.
Impact Issues -- Negotiated and authored key development policies and procedures to encourage new development of franchised and company stores while minimizing conflicts with existing franchisees, including highly successful dispute resolution procedure to deal with those site approvals that did result in claims.
System Policies -- Authored and revised franchise system policies on all manner of issues, including marketing funds, successor/renewal of franchises, franchise ownership, intra-family transfer, product offerings, development, and dispute resolution.
Antitrust Issues -- Over their initial conclusion, convinced top-notch national firm that my client’s development process was fully compliant with antitrust laws.
Franchisee Exits -- Handled myriad, often delicate, franchise terminations or actions in lieu of termination to deal with problematic operators, including franchisees in bankruptcy or threatening bankruptcy.
Re-Franchising Programs -- Led legal team throughout 5-year program through which almost 2000 franchisor-operated units were “re-franchised” (sold to independent operators for continued operation as franchised units of seller’s system). This involved more than 200 separate transactions, all without any resulting litigation.
Acquisition of Significant, Direct Competitor -- Represented franchisor in successful acquisition of 200-unit competitor in California composed of half company and half franchised units. The result was that almost every one of the competitors stores were converted to the acquirer’s concept, and there were no claims or lawsuits filed against the acquiring franchisor.
Frequent Acquisitions -- Handled dozens of acquisitions of franchised businesses (some asset, some stock) ranging from a handful to dozens of units for several different franchisors, many through exercise of a right of first refusal and subsequent negotiations.
Major Acquisition -- Performed critical legal work for acquisition of 100+ chain of quick service restaurants for conversion to client’s franchised concept in crowded metro market, driving client’s market share from sixth to second in less than a year.
CASES
