www.FranchisingAttorney.com is designed to help you find the franchising attorney most suitable for your legal needs. The information provided is applicable whether you are an existing franchisor or a prospective franchisee and whether you need assistance with an FDD or other document preparation, intellectual property rights, transfer issues or help in negotiating a franchise agreement. Whatever your needs, it is critical that you retain someone who has particular and applied experience in the areas that need addressing.

If you are a prospective franchisee, we strongly encourage you to learn as much as you can about the franchising industry in general and the specific industry you are investigating prior to retaining an attorney. The more knowledgeable you are about the subject, the more time-efficient and cost-effective you will be in allowing the attorney selected to focus on the real issues at hand. You certainly don’t want him or her to spend hours educating you on the basic fundamentals of franchising. If you are asking the attorney to assist with the franchise agreement, it is imperative that you retain someone with many years of applied experience in explaining all facets of the document and in helping you negotiate with the franchisor.

If you are a franchisor hoping to update your FDD, we would also encourage you to learn as much about the competition as possible. The easiest way to do this would be to purchase FDDs of your primary competitors, go through their FDDs, select those ideas that are superior to your own language/program features and have them incorporated into your revised/updated FDD. www.UFOCs.com lists over 2,500 companies with current or archived FDDs/UFOCs.com.