2026 Top Franchise Lawyers You Should Know: Peter Viitre — Sotos LLP

Franchise Legal Player: Peter Viitre
Firm: Sotos LLP

Peter Viitre has built a franchise law practice grounded in both corporate advisory work and dispute resolution, helping brands navigate the regulatory complexity of franchising in Canada. As a partner at Sotos LLP, Viitre advises franchisors and franchisees on disclosure, compliance and strategic growth, drawing on experience from both sides of the franchise relationship. His balanced perspective allows him to anticipate risks early and guide clients toward solutions that strengthen the long-term stability of their systems.

1851 Franchise connected with Viitre to discuss the disclosure challenges brands often overlook, the compliance pitfalls facing emerging franchisors and the lessons that continue to shape his legal philosophy.

1851 Franchise: What originally drew you to franchise law, and what has kept you engaged in the space over time?

Peter Viitre: I was a young corporate and M&A associate at a large firm and one of my mentors suggested I take up franchise law as a sub-specialty to distinguish myself from the other corporate lawyers. I said, “Why not?” and I’ve never looked back. Franchise law covers so many different areas of law, apart from the obvious regulatory angle, that each file opens many doors and every day is different. I just love the variety.

1851: As franchising continues to evolve, what legal issue do you see brands most often underestimating today?

Viitre: In Canada, it’s our regime of “expanded material fact disclosure.” Whereas in the U.S., the laundry list of items in the FTC Rule is all you can include in your FDD, the equivalent Canadian provincial lists are just the starting point. Accordingly, we need to supplement and customize each FDD for the particularities of each grant, which requires a special due diligence exercise on the part of the franchisor and its counsel.

And if they screw it up, they will be handing the franchisee significant statutory remedies — most notably, rescission.

1851: In your experience, where do emerging franchisors tend to get tripped up from a compliance or documentation standpoint?

Viitre: Not being willing to pay someone to do it right the first time, and every time thereafter. Money is typically tight for emerging brands and so they tend to skimp on their due diligence regarding new franchisees while at the same time allocating too little money for production of the required documents.

That is a potentially deadly combination, since bad documents just give bad franchisees ammunition and make them harder to deal with down the road.

1851: How should franchisors be thinking about risk management as they scale into new markets or add new unit growth strategies?

Viitre: Unit-level economics is everything. You need to do your homework and make sure your business model works in the new market or based on the new strategy. Generally speaking, profitable franchisees are happy franchisees, and happy franchisees don’t sue.

1851: What distinguishes your approach or philosophy when working with franchise clients?

Viitre: Because I’ve worked for both franchisors and franchisees, I have a deeper appreciation of the arguments on both sides, and I find that it leads to more efficient solutions to problems and resolution of disputes.

It also gives me visibility into what my competitors on both sides of the aisle are doing, so that I have a solid handle on industry best practices.

1851: Looking back, what lesson from your legal career has had the greatest impact on how you advise clients today?

Viitre: Don’t be afraid to have the little fight now if it means avoiding the bigger fight later. Have the hard conversations in real time — your clients will appreciate it and your opponents will respect you for it.

Every great franchisee had help buying a franchise. Want to learn more about how 1851 helps franchisees find the right franchise opportunity? Visit www.1851growthclub.com and start your journey.