Franchise Registration & Compliance
Compliance with franchise sales laws is a challenge which every franchisor and master franchisee in the U.S. confronts on a daily basis. Our team of franchise compliance lawyers have helped our clients meet their compliance obligations in an efficient, cost-effective way for four decades. Our experience allows us to anticipate issues which often arise in franchise relationships, and we draft documents to give our clients the flexibility to deal with unforeseen future developments in their franchising programs. While we believe in drafting easy-to-understand, tough franchise agreements, our clients’ agreements are also drafted to be fair and attractive to prospective franchisees.
Because of the size of our practice, we are in daily communication with state franchise regulators and can anticipate and avoid many of the emerging issues in the franchise registration process, which can cause franchisors to stop franchise sales in certain states until registration issues are resolved. Besides understanding the nuts and bolts of the franchise registration and disclosure process—we have delivered countless seminars and written numerous books, chapters, and articles about it—we also have helped to shape the development of the FTC Franchising Rule and the requirements for preparing a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD).
Through our involvement in the International Franchise Association and the ABA Forum on Franchising, our monthly research and writing to create The GPMemorandum, and our ongoing interaction with our litigation colleagues, we stay on top of developments in the law and alert our clients when the courts interpret laws in a way which may be adverse to our clients interests. We propose changes to client franchise documents to give them the best chance to avoid costly legal issues in the future.
Our Expertise
- Prepare unit franchise, area development, area representative and master franchise agreements, and FDDs
- Prepare state franchise registrations, amendments, renewals, annual reports, and exemptions
- Review and revise franchise documents to address best practices and legal developments
- Address investigations and enforcement actions taken by state and federal franchise regulators
- Present franchise law compliance training programs and draft compliance policies and procedures
- Advise on the development and enforcement of franchisee audit policies and procedures
- Work with franchisee associations and advisory councils to address changes in franchise system
Representative Matters
- We have prepared franchise documents for start-up franchisors, rewritten documents for franchisors with inadequate documents, managed franchise registrations for companies with as many as six brands, and dealt with nationwide investigations of franchisors by several law enforcement agencies.
- We have advised franchisors about the adoption and implementation of new programs for franchisees and played a key role in implementing those changes.