Profile: Stuart Hershman

Franchise

Biography: Franchise

Stuart Hershman is a partner with the law firm of DLA Piper US LLP in Chicago, Illinois, where he concentrates his practice in the franchising, general dealership and distribution, and antitrust areas. He has structured, documented, and helped implement hundreds of franchise programmes, dealership and distribution relationships, and intellectual property licensing arrangements. He has also engaged in antitrust counselling, particularly in pricing, supply, and other dealership and distribution matters, for public and private companies.

Mr Hershman counsels companies on the whole spectrum of franchise, dealership, and distribution law, including structuring new franchise programmes and restructuring existing franchise programmes, structuring dealership and distribution relationships, re-branding franchise systems, terminating and renewing franchise relationships, establishing the business parameters of the franchise programme (including supply and distribution relationships), restructuring franchise organisations and preparing franchise documents in the context of royalty securitisations, counselling various participants in the franchise royalty securitisation process, assessing the applicability of federal and state franchise and business opportunity laws and, where appropriate, structuring dealership and distribution relationships to avoid coverage by these laws, trouble-shooting with state franchise regulatory agencies, preparing franchise, dealership, and distribution agreements and franchise disclosure documentation, complying with applicable franchise registration and disclosure laws, establishing franchise legal compliance programmes, preparing franchise legal compliance guides, and conducting franchise legal compliance training sessions, working through the transfer process, counselling companies in the trademark area, assisting clients in expanding internationally, and counselling on dispute resolution.

Mr Hershman has authored and co-authored, or contributed to, numerous articles and seminar materials on franchising and antitrust. He co-edited the American Bar Association forum on franchising's earnings claims monograph. In addition, he co-authored the United States chapter of the International Encyclopedia of Franchising, published by Kluwer Law International Ltd in London, England; authored "Revisiting the Robinson-Patman Act in the Franchise Supply Setting" for the American Bar Association Forum on Franchising's Franchise Law Journal; co-authored the "Structuring the Franchise Relationship'" chapter for the ABA Forum on Franchising's Fundamentals of Franchising book; co-authored "Information and Switching Costs in the Franchise Context: Does Kodak Affect Franchisors Complying with the New Uniform Franchise Offering Circular Guidelines?", authored "The Bona Fide Wholesale Price: How Safe Is This Harbor?", and co-authored "Supreme Court Breathes Life Into Derivative Market Tying Claims: Do Franchisors Face New Risks?", all for the International Franchise Association's Franchise Legal Digest; and co-authored "Federal Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law: Problems and Concerns in Franchising", for Business Laws Inc. He has spoken at the International Franchise Association's Annual Legal Symposium, legal roundtables and certified franchise executive programmes, the American Bar Association's Forum on Franchising, and other franchise law-related meetings and training sessions.

Mr Hershman is a member of the American Bar Association's Forum Committee on Franchising, the ABA's franchising subcommittee of the Antitrust Section, and the ABA's Robinson-Patman Act subcommittee of the Antitrust Section. He received his BA degree with high honours from the University of Michigan in 1981 and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1984.

DLA Piper is one of the largest law firms in the world, with more than 3,400 lawyers in 64 offices in 25 countries. The firm is a national and international leader in franchise and distribution law, with clients ranging from entrepreneurs and start-up companies to the world's largest franchisors and manufacturers.

DLA Piper is positioned to help companies with their legal needs anywhere in the world. We are a full-service legal organisation whose principal practices include commercial contracts; corporate; employment, pensions and benefits; finance and restructuring; franchise and distribution; intellectual property; litigation and arbitration; projects and infrastructure; real estate; regulatory and government affairs; tax; and technology and media.

Our unmatched global presence enables us to meet the ongoing needs of our clients in the world's key economic, technology and governmental centres, including: London, New York, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Moscow, Tokyo, Shanghai, Chicago, Singapore, Brussels, Beijing, and Washington, DC.

In the US, DLA Piper has 1,500 lawyers and offices in 23 cities, including top business and technology markets across the country, from Baltimore and Boston to Silicon Valley and San Diego. We are also located in strategic markets such as: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Sacramento, Seattle and Tampa.