Top Franchise Lawyers: Fredric Cohen of Cheng Cohen

1851 interviewed Cheng Cohen’s Fredric Cohen about what makes a great franchise attorney and his advice for growth-minded franchisors.

About Fredric Cohen (from firm’s website): 

Frederic Cohen is a seasoned business and commercial litigator and trial lawyer. He represents clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country as well as in alternative dispute resolution forums such as arbitration and mediation. Cohen has extensive experience in the areas of distribution, antitrust, trademarks, valuation and finance, among others.

Cohen spends most of his time keeping the world safe for franchising. For over thirty years, Cohen has represented many of the nation’s most prominent franchise, licensing and distribution companies in a wide variety of lawsuits from complex multi-forum class action litigation to standard enforcement actions and everything in between.

Cohen has helped franchisors develop programs to protect and enforce their franchised systems and intellectual property rights like trademarks and trade secrets, and he regularly defends franchisors against fraud, breach of contract, good faith and fair dealing, tortious interference, registration and disclosure violations and similar claims. Cohen also works with franchisors to develop effective responses to state and federal regulatory inquiries and investigations, as well as strategies to defend state and federal enforcement actions. Chambers USA commented that Cohen “is hailed by peers as an excellent litigation lawyer” and “one of the great litigation experts in the [franchising] field.”

About Cheng Cohen (from firm’s website): 

Cheng Cohen specializes in franchise compliance and growth law and is proud to have the largest legal team dedicated to the franchise industry.

1851 Franchise: What do you love most about franchising?

Frederic Cohen: The opportunity to work with and represent creative people and the innovation they represent. It sometimes, happily, allows me to forget I’m a lawyer.

1851: What makes a great franchise attorney? 

Cohen: A great franchise attorney is simply a great human being who happens to have developed outstanding legal skills. Great person first, outstanding legal skills second. Me, I’m a work in progress.

1851: What is the most important question to ask a franchise attorney when looking to make a change in representation? 

Cohen: Consistent with my answer to the previous question, I would ask: “What is the single most important thing to you?” The answer will tell you whether the prospective counsel is a lawyer first or a great human being first, and, if the latter, it will tell you a lot about her as a person. I recently interviewed a candidate and asked her that question. Her unhesitating answer: “My daughter.”  No BS about work, accomplishment, achieving, being a go getter, building a practice, etcetera. Honesty and solid values. We hired her that day.

1851: What is the number-one piece of advice you would give franchisors as to how to grow their brand? 

Cohen: It has to bring value every day to the franchisee who pays you to use it and to the consumer who is attracted to it. The ‘every day’ part means it must continue to evolve, grow, change, adapt — for five years, ten years, decades. That requires relentless effort and unending investment and reinvestment of resources. Look at a few recently — and remarkably — resurgent brands — KFC, Domino’s, Arby’s. That didn’t just happen. Someone willed it and committed the resources to enable it.  

1851: What do you see as the top legal worry for franchisors in the next year? 

Cohen: COVID-19, without question. How will brick and mortar concepts deal with reduced foot traffic? What safety measures might be implemented for delivery, and will the consumer have confidence in it? From a purely legal standpoint, how will causation and the corresponding liability play out with the spread of the disease? Will franchisors be able to withstand the pressure/temptation to involve themselves in their franchisees’ employment relationships, which they have been — or should have been — meticulous about avoiding, when franchisees’ employees become ill? Everything else will fade into relative insignificance. Hope for warm weather and a quick burn-off.