Franchise Law

 Franchise attorneys and staff at Bressler, Amery & Ross offer a highly developed and comprehensive range of franchise and distribution law services. They advise and represent start-up to mature businesses and industry and franchise associations in complex negotiations, transactions, alternative dispute resolution (such as arbitration and mediation), and litigation. They have in-depth experience in all aspects of franchising and distribution and related concerns from offering statement and sales and service agreement to transfer, termination, or succession.

Franchise Litigation

The firm’s franchise group is always at work on cases docketed in courts and administrative bodies around the country. Experienced lawyers exclusively represent franchisees in termination disputes, auto dealer protests, warranty issues, and other matters of concern to franchisees. In the auto industry, cases handled by the firm have become important legal precedents. Recent and ongoing cases are in complex class actions and antitrust and consumer fraud issues in Federal and State courts and before administrative agencies. The group has a distinguished record of practice in each of these venues.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

The first phase of a franchise dispute resolution may take place before a franchisor policy board. The firm’s franchise group has guided and represented clients through this process, their expertise often achieving satisfactory results. Increasingly, franchisors, franchisees, and distributors agree to mediate or arbitrate controversies before established or pro hac alternative dispute resolution forums. The franchise group has kept pace with the growth of these forums, honing the necessary skills for effective representation.

Franchise/Distribution Negotiations and Transactions

From individual buy-sell agreements to initial public offering support, the firm handles the widest variety of transactions on behalf of franchise clients. The firm’s franchise group performs intensive review of franchise offering statements, Federal Trade Commission and state regulatory compliance, and contract rights and obligations of the parties in franchise and distribution agreements. The practice offers comprehensive counsel on franchisor-franchisee and distributor relations, its worth derived from decades of advising on and negotiating transactions and dealing with issues and confrontation to satisfactory conclusion wherever possible.

Beyond the establishment of a franchised business or distributorship, the group’s advice and representation is frequently sought on expansion, relocation, acquisition or sale, protest rights, and the full array of regulatory compliance issues.