Cohen Mohr represents franchisees in their commercial transactions and related disputes with franchisors.

On the franchisor and master franchisor side, we assist companies in preparing Franchise Disclosure Documents and other regulatory filings, and represent them in domestic and international franchise negotiations, renewals, assignments and disputes.

On the franchisee side, we help franchisees review Franchise Disclosure Documents and negotiate new franchise agreements, franchise renewals, compliance, franchise agreement assignments and new franchisee approvals.

We believe that franchisors and franchisees should be guided by the principle of growing their respective businesses together and we are skilled at developing legal solutions designed to obtain the best business plan for both the franchisor and the franchisee.

Cohen Mohr provides this vast array of franchise and business practice knowledge to help you negotiate your new agreements and renewals, as well as solve any other issues that arise in a franchise relationship.

Should dispute resolution, arbitration or litigation become necessary, Cohen Mohr brings considerable franchise and commercial litigation experience to bear on behalf of franchisors and franchisees.

We know the arguments available to franchisees to defend litigation from a franchisor, including:

• Improper disclosure
• Fraud and misrepresentation during the sale of the franchise
• Improper or inappropriate changes to the franchise policy that have a material adverse affect on the franchisees
• Permitting the opening of franchise or company owned offices that are too close to existing franchisees and impact their ability to do business
• Breach of the franchise agreement or implied duty of good faith and fair dealing
• Improper termination of a franchisee
• Improper refusal to renew a franchisee

We also have a keen awareness for the arguments available to franchisor’s against franchisees, including for example:

• Failure to report transactions
• Failure to pay royalty fees
• Failure to pay marketing fees
• Alleged damage to the goodwill of the brand
• Failure to comply with post termination obligations
• Violations of trademark law

We assist in franchise acquisitions by franchisors or affiliates, as well as franchisee mergers and acquisitions by franchisees of other companies.

Cohen Mohr also assists master franchisees that have purchased franchise territorial rights to grow an established brand in a specific geographic market. For the master franchisees, we assist the master in negotiations with its franchisor for the master rights, preparation and filing of the master franchisee’s offering circular, negotiation of the master franchisee’s unit franchise agreements with its franchisees, and all other day-to-day business issues of operating a master franchise.