Practice Areas

Franchising

We provide advice to assist you in determining whether franchising is the right avenue for you to expand your business. If you decide that franchising is the right fit, we advise and assist you in positioning your business for franchising, prepare your Franchise Disclosure Document and Franchise Agreement and advise you in connection with offering and selling franchises and your ongoing relationships with franchisees.

We also assist prospective franchisees to understand and evaluate their Franchise Disclosure Document and Franchise Agreement and negotiate modifications to the Franchise Agreement.

Starting a Business

It is important to start your new venture on sound footing with all legal documents in place. We can assist you with organizational matters, commercial leases, initial regulatory compliance and contracts that protect your business, facilitate your receiving payment and minimize the likelihood of litigation.

Taking Care of Business

We can assist you with regulatory compliance, contracts that protect your business, facilitate your receiving payment and minimize the likelihood of litigation, such as employment agreements, nondisclosure agreements, commercial leases, loan agreements and agreements with clients and vendors.

Buying & Selling Your Business

Whether buying or selling a business, you need assistance from an experienced lawyer who can advise you about the process and help structure and negotiate the transaction. As the buyer, you want to ensure that you actually get what you think you are getting for the value that you agreed to pay. As the seller, you want to ensure that you actually receive the purchase price and keep your post-closing liability to a minimum. In either case, you need to ensure that the deal documents reflect your understanding of the deal and that there are no loopholes in the documents that will prevent you from obtaining the benefit of your bargain. We coordinate with your accountant, tax lawyer and estate planning lawyer to protect your interests.

Mediation

Resolving business disputes as expeditiously and inexpensively as possible is important to most businesses. One of the biggest complaints business owners have about lawyers is that the cost of litigation is so high that they cannot afford to cost-effectively pursue their claims or defend against claims in court. As a trained mediator, Susan uses her years of experience as a business lawyer to help parties resolve their disputes through mediation.