Franchise Legal Expert Chad Finkelstein on Protecting Your Brand

For Chad Finkelstein, franchise law is about combining legal strategy with entrepreneurial creativity. A transactional lawyer by training, Finkelstein has always admired creators — the people who build brands from the ground up and bring them to life in new markets. That admiration, paired with his legal expertise, led him into franchising, where he helps brand owners commercialize their concepts and expand strategically across regions and borders.

As a partner at Dale & Lessmann, Finkelstein is recognized for his practical approach, clear communication and commitment to guiding clients with actionable advice.

• The obvious legal answer would be to ensure that system standards are uniformly followed, as anything less leads to confusion among consumers.
• Franchisors should plan ahead for international markets.
• Even though there is a cost to filing trademark applications at a time when the franchisor is in startup mode and cashflow is at its tightest, it is a far more painful lesson to learn later when a great international franchise opportunity comes up, but the trademark is not available in that country.

It depends on the Item 19. Some financial performance representations are deliberately light, such as average systemwide sales and nothing else. That’s entirely fine, but, in those cases, the Item 19 should be viewed as a reference or a starting point for due diligence. Other franchisors proudly disclose extremely detailed and comprehensive FPRs in their Item 19s, and I think prospective franchisees should be reviewing those very carefully.

• A franchisor’s decision to not include FPRs in an Item 19 should not be viewed as a potential problem with the franchisor.
• Franchisors of different sizes and experience have all sorts of valid reasons to not include FPRs.

Being guided by flattery is the single largest legal mistake brands make. The franchisors we see who fail the most often are those who were not ready to franchise on the day that someone reached out and offered to pay them a royalty for the right to open a franchise. Franchisees pay a lot of money to buy a franchise, and having a true set of operating standards, a training program and support infrastructure makes a tremendous difference. We love to see franchisors who are deliberate about their franchise expansion and on their own timeline.

My hope is that every email we send and every conversation we have ends with our franchisor clients understanding our advice and having a clear recommendation from us to consider. We don’t send emails that merely list options and then ask our clients what they think. We try to avoid the dreaded “legalese” that can frustrate people. We communicate in plain English and believe that that strengthens our partnership with the business leaders who trust us.”