Our practical experience derived from daily involvement with franchisors and distributors informs our aggressive representation of your interests during litigation. We have significant experience in helping clients around the country resolve disputes between franchisors/franchisees and suppliers/distributors/manufacturers.

We routinely appear in state and federal trial and appellate courts and handle arbitrations throughout the United States and staff cases efficiently. In the face of a dispute, our broad experience in mediating, arbitrating and litigating franchise, anti-trust, class actions and regulatory issues will be put to work for you.

In addition to negotiating state franchise, relationship or sales representative disputes and dealing with federal and state administrative agencies, we litigate industry-specific matters such as those involving state motor vehicle franchise practices statutes, the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act and state motor fuel marketing laws, and state consumer protection statutes. In addition to statutory claims, we are also experienced in handling claims that arise frequently in franchise/distribution litigation, such as:

• Breach of contract
• Breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing
• Unlawful terminations and non-renewals of dealership and franchise relationships
• Violations of restrictive covenants, such as non-competition and non-solicitation clauses
• Violations of the Uniform Commercial Code, including open price terms
• Below-cost or discriminatory pricing
• Monopolistic or anti-competitive conduct

We represent a variety of clients who use franchise or distribution models to market products such as gasoline, beverages, food and motor vehicles. Because a unique set of statutes and common law has developed to govern such business models, our attorneys are skilled in identifying whether a business relationship constitutes a “franchise,” “dealership” or “distributorship” to determine whether it should be afforded special protections under the law.