Joseph Wasch serves as Senior Counsel to The Franchise Firm LLP. With more than 40 years of experience, Mr. Wasch concentrates his practice on franchise industry matters, involving business structuring, entity organization and corporate governance, equity and debt financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, sales of businesses, drafting and reviewing software and intellectual property licensing/sale, employment law and human resources issues, trademark matters, purchase contracts, and complex commercial transactions. He also regularly represents and and provides counsel to franchisors, franchisees, large businesses, tech companies, and startups.
Mr. Wasch has established numerous business relationships in the franchise industry. He has extensive experience representing both franchisors and franchisees in drafting Franchise Disclosure Documents and all franchise-related documents for startup, emerging, and national/international brands. Mr. Wasch has also developed relationships with franchisors that refer their franchisees to the group’s commercial leasing practice area. In addition, Mr. Wasch has represented restaurants, pharmacies, apparel, and automotive retail chains and franchise systems all over the country.
As a former executive officer and in-house general counsel to several franchise companies, clients turn to Mr. Wasch for his knowledge and insight involving a multitude of industries, including investment banking, healthcare, temporary staffing, real estate, and software development. He advised and counseled senior management and boards of directors on legal risk assessments, strategic initiatives, and policies and procedures in those assignments. Mr. Wasch also served as general counsel to the ownership group of Tropical Smoothie Café and advised the owners through the sale of the majority ownership in the business to private equity.
Before joining Tropical Smoothie Café, Mr. Wasch was general counsel and corporate secretary to Outsource International, Inc., a provider of temporary staffing services with both franchised and corporately-owned offices. At Outsource International, he oversaw all compliance and legal matters for the company’s franchise division, and, in addition was involved in the negotiation and preparation of various contracts and commercial agreements, protecting the company’s intellectual property, negotiating finance and acquisition documents, attending to compliance and regulatory issues, and corporate governance matters. Mr. Wasch had similar responsibilities as Vice President and General Counsel to HCX Salons International, LLC, a national franchisor of hair salons specializing in hair color, styling, and cuts.
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