Lawyers Catch Up on Year's Developments in the Law

Co-Chair of ABA's Forum on Franchising Says Attendance Is in Record Numbers

PHOENIX (Blue MauMau) - Held in a posh Marriott just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, the American Bar Association’s 30th Annual Forum on Franchising is finishing up today. Out of roughly 2100 members, some 40 percent attended this year’s event. These 850 people attended 29 programs. With such numbers it is easy to see why this is regarded as the top forum for the study and discussion of the legal aspects of franchising.

Mr. Harris Chernow (pictured on the left), the co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising and a franchise attorney with the law firm Chernow Katz LLC, thinks that there is a wealth of legal information that attorneys need to keep abreast of each year.

States Chernow, “Every year we can do this [event] because there is such a wealth of information, resources and cases. This year we have a change in the franchise rule, the FTC came out with amendments to it. This has been on the books of the FTC, but it has not been official until this year. Abiding by it has been voluntary from this past July, however it will become mandatory come July 1, 2008. We have many programs geared towards the amendments of the FTC because it’s on the front burner for all franchisors.”

Although a number of franchisor executives attend, not many franchisees show up at the ABA meetings. Observes Chernow, “Ninety-nine percent of attendees are legal related — lawyers and paralegals. Some franchisor executives also show up.”

When asked why franchisor executives attend, he replies, “Franchisors are dealing with lawyers on almost a daily basis."

Nonetheless, Chernow is one of the first to argue that just about every session actually does impact franchisees. Says Chernow, “Every session we have impacts the franchisee because one side of the coin is the franchisor and the other side is the franchisee. The amendments [to the laws] are intended to protect the consumer so it impacts prospective franchisees. And the laws and cases many times affect what goes into the [franchise] agreement.”

With government and legal experts discussing developments in the law, many of the legal issues that are being threshed out and explained at these meetings will eventually affect franchisees down the road. The forum is the venue in which the legal profession that services franchisees and franchisors keeps abreast of changes in the law.

“This is one of those venues in which, for anybody who is a practicing professional, whether it be an attorney or paralegal in the franchise world, this is the place to be. It is inclusive. We are not sponsored by any other organization or outside third party. It is strictly the American Bar Association. It is an educational vehicle in which it is balanced for franchisee and franchisor attorneys.”

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Related readings:

30th Annual Forum on Franchising Agenda, Oct. 10 - 13, Itinarary of Seminars (pdf file)