Top Franchise Legal Players: Jess Dance, Shareholder in Polsinelli's Global Franchise and Supply Network Practice

Jess Dance is a shareholder with Polsinelli’s Global Franchise and Supply Network Practice and a former assistant attorney general at the Colorado Attorney General’s office. His practice focuses on franchise litigation, business disputes and other complex commercial litigation, as well as U.S. and international franchise disclosure, registration and transactional matters.

Dance’s professional interest in the franchising industry began when he discovered that one of the premier franchise litigators in the country, Len MacPhee, was looking for an associate to help him with a variety of franchise-related class actions, and he got the job. Dance says he is “still learning a lot from Len,” even today.

Now, Dance loves working with franchisors and franchisees who are passionate about their brand. “It’s very refreshing to see people excited about what they’re doing,” he said.

According to Dance, one of the most significant challenges facing the franchising industry right now is legal movement to hold franchisors liable or deem them to be the joint employer of franchisees and their employees. “The risks could be catastrophic for the industry if franchisees are deemed not to be independent businesses,” he said. “It changes everything. The back and forth creates a lot of uncertainty for brands on what they can and cannot do, and it inhibits growth.”

His advice to prospective franchisees is to know exactly what you’re getting into. “One of the primary strengths of franchising is the strength in numbers. You’re becoming part of an established brand that has name recognition and customers off the street,” he said. “It’s that uniformity that is critical to franchising. So if you’re getting into it, you need to be prepared to operate the brand standards to ensure a consistent quality of product or services. That benefits customers and all franchises alike.”

Watch the full interview with Dance above, or click here to watch it on YouTube.