Attorney Profile: Spadea Lignana's Stephanie Grobler Utilizes Her Expertise to Create Lasting Relationships with Clients

For almost a decade and a half, Stephanie Grobler has been committed to helping franchise business owners achieve their business goals. Over the years, Grobler has helped many long-time clients from inception to business maturity, and there are very few legal issues faced by franchisors that she has not advised on.

“I have been with Spadea Lignana since the very beginning,” said Grobler. “I received my J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1993. At the time, my husband and I were moving around a bit. After we had kids and I became a stay-at-home mom for a while, I was eventually offered a job in the franchising industry. Tom Spadea was still a VP at Rita’s Italian Ice, and I was handling a lot of lease and contract work for that brand’s franchisees. Eventually, the firm I worked for became Spadea Lignana, representing franchisees first, and then transitioning into franchisor work. With franchisor clients, it is a very rewarding, long-term commitment — they trust us, and I learn so much from them about business.”

During her day-to-day workflow, Grobler focuses primarily on drafting and maintaining franchise disclosure documents and franchise agreements along with assisting clients with all of the legal work that goes into being a franchisor. She has the experience and business acumen to guide her clients through the challenges of launching, growing and eventually selling a franchisor.

Spadea Lignana is divided into pods, with each pod consisting of an experienced franchise attorney supported by a few paralegals to help balance the workload and demands of the clients. Each of the pods directly serves a variety of clients and franchise concepts.  The idea is that each client has multiple levels of support, so they are effectively and efficiently represented by more than just one person. 

“Our pod works with a wide array of clients — everything from healthcare, food and fitness brands to home services and pest control franchise concepts,” said Grobler. “Most of them are emerging franchisors with a handful of franchisees, although I do work with some bigger clients. We even have some clients who operate both franchise locations and corporate-owned locations. For example, I have one client that is actively pursuing active distribution models, so we help with licensing and managing agreements.” 

When it comes to her client relationships, Grobler is all about crafting creative solutions to overcome the hurdles that affect franchisors. She strives to recognize what her client is trying to achieve and then utilizes her experience and creativity to help them achieve that goal. Business owners invest time, money and incredible effort into making their dreams a reality, and Grobler understands the risks involved. That’s why she takes the time to truly understand each client and prepare them for the future and give them a road map to achieve their often-lofty goals.

“There is nothing better than hearing from clients achieving huge success and knowing that we had a role in helping them achieve what they set out to achieve when the business was still just a plan,” she said. “Our clients who have had experience with other firms tell us how Spadea Lignana really stands out thanks to our accessibility. With our core program and flat monthly fees, clients can be confident that they will always get us on the phone. Also, our firm’s cross-pod functionally is not only for internal purposes, but also for our clients. As a pod leader, I very often reach out to other pod leaders if I don’t know the answer to a client’s questions. Since those resources are available to all of our clients, they know they aren’t just getting me as their attorney — they are getting the entire firm.”

As Grobler notes, that team-oriented approach is why she loves working for Spadea Lignana. “Josh Lignana and Tom Spadea have really created a great company culture here,” said Grobler. “Everyone in the firm has each other's back and treats each other with respect. When I was in law school and had internships with other law firms, many lawyers were competitive and nasty. Here, we love having discussions about best practices and bouncing ideas off of each other. That kind of support makes such a big difference when it comes to offering the best legal work for our clients. Whether it be clients or attorneys, everyone at Spadea Lignana takes care of each other.”