Akerman LLP, a top 100 U.S. law firm, has expanded its Franchise and Licensing Practice with Dale Alexandra Cohen in New York. Cohen joins the firm from Kaufmann Gildin & Robbins LLP in New York.
Cohen follows the addition of partner Robert Smith in Washington, D.C., Franchise and Licensing Practice Co-chair Kevin Hein, special counsel Trish MacAskill in Denver, litigation partner William Sentell in Houston, and special counsel Jill Klein in West Palm Beach. The six new partners, combined with the experience of Franchise and Licensing Practice Co-Chair Warren Lewis in Washington, D.C., bring a wealth of knowledge in U.S. and international franchise and distribution matters.
“Dale has extensive experience managing a range of franchise and private equity-related matters across local, national, and international scales,” said Kevin Hein, co-chair of the Franchise and Licensing Practice. “She has received national recognition for her success within the industry, and I am confident that she will prove a strong addition to our team.”
Cohen focuses her practice on domestic and international franchising, distribution, and licensing law. Dale advises both emerging and mature companies with respect to planning, structuring and implementing their franchise, distribution, and licensing programs. Her experience includes drafting franchise, master franchise, license and distribution agreements; preparing franchise disclosure documents (FDDs); securing registration of franchise offerings in the U.S. and abroad; negotiating and structuring complex system-wide supplier arrangements, as well as drafting agreements memorializing such system-wide supplier arrangements; implementing compliance programs and system-wide standards; and, counseling franchisors on a variety of franchise relationship issues, such as franchise termination and strategies to avoid and resolve franchisee disputes.
Cohen also has experience with franchise-related mergers and acquisitions (including assisting private equity firms with the purchase and sale of franchise systems), sophisticated franchise-related financing transactions (including the securitization of a franchisor’s royalty stream), and general corporate law.
