Biography: Franchise

Beata Krakus is an attorney in the franchising and distribution, and corporate practice groups. She represents clients in domestic and international franchise transactional matters and related areas, including distribution and sales representative arrangements and other commercial contracts. She advises on, helps structure and prepares franchise programmes for different franchise concepts including hotels, restaurants and personal health systems. Ms Krakus has prepared domestic and international franchise disclosure documents, franchise agreements, area development agreements, master franchise agreements, distribution agreements and similar documents. She assists clients with state franchise registrations and counsels clients on federal and state franchise law compliance. An important part of her practice is assisting clients with mergers and acquisitions, primarily in transactions involving franchise concepts. She has a general corporate law background.

Ms Krakus has both US and Swedish law degrees, and her background gives her a unique perspective in her international work. She practised in Warsaw, Poland with the Swedish law firm of Magnusson Wahlin. Her practice focused on assisting foreign businesses in their activities in Poland, ranging from counselling in connection with initial start-ups and negotiation of commercial contracts to assisting with multinational antitrust filings and privatisation matters.

Ms Krakus has presented papers to the ABA forum on franchising and the IFA Legal Symposium on topics as diverse as social media and the 'accidental' franchise. She is an associate editor of the Forum publication The Franchise Lawyer. She has written articles for the Franchise Law Journal on topics including perpetual agreements and the fractional franchise exemption.