Want to be a franchise attorney? Here’s how

The franchise industry is massive, as it is estimated that there are more than 900,000 franchise businesses across 300 business categories in the U.S. that provide nearly 18 million jobs and generate more than $2.1 trillion to the economy.

Someone has to support it, legally.

Whether protecting franchisees in the buying process; helping a business morph into a franchise; or litigating in support of a franchise client, franchise attorneys are a very important piece in the franchise industry puzzle.

Even with the depth of the industry, very few attorneys graduate from law school, nail the bar and say, “I have always dreamt of becoming a franchise attorney.”

You want to be one? Here’s the pathway five of our franchise legal players took:

Alexander Tuneski, DLA Piper: When I first started as a summer associate, I was randomly placed in a hallway surrounded by the firm’s franchise group. While I didn’t do much work for the group that summer, I did get to hear from a senior partner what amounted to a sales pitch about the wonders of franchise law. As the practice melded many of my legal and business interests into one, it made perfect sense for me. So while I came into the summer not knowing that franchise law existed, I came out of the summer as a future franchise lawyer.

Michael Daigle, Cheng Cohen: It was all due to the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair and women’s shoes. I was practicing law in New Orleans (where I’m from) at that time. The firm received a call from a woman who had a booth in the World’s Fair expo where she made custom women’s shoes on the spot. She said that people kept asking her if she franchised, so she wanted to talk to a lawyer familiar with franchising. Since no one in the firm (including me) had any franchise experience, and since I happened to be free, she and I met, hit it off, and learned franchising together. I’ve been a franchise lawyer ever since. I’m not sure what the IFA’s membership roster looked like in 1984, but I’m pretty sure I was the first franchise lawyer in the south – at least the first I’m aware of.

Philip Zeidman, DLA Piper: While in law school I took courses at the Harvard Business School, one of them on “Management of New Enterprises.” I wrote my term paper on a resort motel my father, a lawyer, had built as an investment. In the course of reading about the industry I came across a reference to a then new phenomenon called “franchising,” and found it tantalizing. A few years later, as General Counsel to the US Small Business Administration, I was forced into service with one day’s notice to speak on franchising at an Annual Conference of the American Bar Association. On a Sunday in August in Miami I assumed I would be speaking to a skeleton crew. Instead, I found a full ballroom. When I later entered private practice, neither of those experiences was lost on me!

Cheryl Mullin, Mullin Law: When I graduated from high school, I had no car, no driver’s license, and no college plans. I worked full time at the local 7-Eleven – a corporate store run by my future husband – which was within walking distance of my house. It was there that I learned about franchising as a business model, and learned about merchandising and cash reports. Fast forward a couple of years, I managed to work my way through college and law school, and was referred to franchise attorney, Art Pressman, who at the time was representing 7-Eleven in a legal matter. My business experience and ability to read cash register Z reports helped me to secure a law clerk position with Art’s firm.

Carl Zwisler, Gray Plant Mooty: In 1975 I was coordinating state regulatory issues for the National Association of Home Builders and found that the job involved more administrative work and less legal work than I preferred. I answered a classified ad in the Washington Post for the International Franchise Association, which was seeking a lawyer with a government affairs background to coordinate its legal and legislative programs. At the time NAHB had its own office building and a staff of about 145. I visited IFA headquarters in an office building in Bethesda, Maryland, and was greeted by a staff of six people. I was impressed with the letterhead, which listed the members of the board of directors and well-known brands. Because this interview occurred decades before the internet was available, my research on “franchising” was limited to my dictionary. I knew that a franchise was the right to vote or a right granted by a king, but knew that IFA was about something different. So my first question at the interview was, “What is a franchise?” After attending the 1975 IFA Legal Symposium, I began working at IFA, where I remained for eight and a half years, before I entered private law practice.

During my time at IFA I was involved in the development of the FTC Franchise Rule, the UFOC Guidelines (the predecessor to the FDD), and federal and state franchise regulations. I testified before Congress and 31 state legislatures or regulatory agencies about various franchising issues during my tenure. I also produced the first compilation of franchise laws and regulations, which was essential to IFA members, because there was no single source to which franchisors and their lawyers could turn to access all U.S. franchise laws. Several years later IFA sold the publication to Commerce Clearing House, when it began publishing the Business Franchise Guide.