Print PageBreakfast Lounge: Bridging Business and the Law
8:45 – 9:45 a.m.Moderator:
Susan Friedman, Partner, Davis LLP
Panellists:
Joseph Adler, Partner, Hoffer Adler LLP
Graham Cooke, VP, New Restaurant Expansion, A&W Food Services of Canada Inc.
Ash Vasdani, Franchisee, McDonald's Restaurants Canada Limited
Steve Kahansky, Deputy General Counsel, TDL Group (Tim Hortons)
Our panel will discuss critical issues facing the franchising industry in the context of today’s business and legal environment. With perspectives coming from a national franchisor, a franchisee, inside counsel, and outside counsel, attendees will get a good cross-section of views on the key issues to think about in 2012 and beyond. The panel will explore topics including the unique nature of class actions in the context of franchising and the impact such litigation has on participants in the system, the use of social media by franchisors and franchisees and the legal and practical concerns that creates, the current legal climate respecting disclosure issues and how that has affected disclosure practices and the relationship between external counsel and their franchisor or franchisee clients and how best to enhance that relationship.