Congratulations to all the finalists and award recipients recognized on Thursday, May 7, at the 2015 Arizona Franchise Excellence Awards sponsored by Quarles & Brady in partnership with the Phoenix Business Journal. With many franchisee and franchisor leaders from the Phoenix area in attendance, the event was a huge success in bringing the franchise community together for the first time to celebrate and honor the contributions that franchisees and franchisors make to the economic success of our community.
The award winners are:
Lifetime Achievement – Tom Barnett, Barnett Management
Franchisor of the Year – Dave Crisalli, Message Envy Spa
Franchisee of the Year – Ed Holmes, Papa Murphy’s
Franchise Supplier/Professional of the Year – Harriet Moser, FranNet of Arizona
New Concept of the Year – Steven Morris, Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill Arizona
Community Impact Award – Ron Lynch, Tilted Kilt
Click here to see the full list of finalists. Click here for photos from the evening.
We applaud all of this year’s nominees, finalists, and award recipients for their hard work and dedication. Thank you for your contributions and commitment to promote franchising and to the betterment of the Phoenix community.
Hearings recently opened in the National Labor Relation Board’s controversial case accusing McDonald’s and its franchisees of anti-union activity under a joint-employer theory. Those consolidated hearings are set to occur in three locations, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, with the trial portion likely to start in mid May 2015. The case is being closely watched given the potential to expand liability to franchisors for the employment decisions and obligations of their franchisees and franchisees’ workers.
Quarles & Brady is a proud sponsor of the Phoenix Business Journal’s Arizona Franchise Excellence Awards. For anyone in the franchise industry in Arizona, this is an event you do not want to miss. This event is the first of its kind to spotlight and honor Arizona’s top franchisors, franchisees, and franchise-related businesses. Nearly 80 nominations were submitted for consideration. The finalists, listed below, were announced by the Phoenix Business Journal on Friday, April 3, 2015. The winners in each category will be announced at the awards ceremony on May 7, 2015, at the JW Marriott Camelback Inn Scottsdale from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm.
Join Quarles & Brady on April 9, 2015 in Phoenix for the second of three complimentary workshops on franchising topics titled, “
The 2015 International Franchise Association Conference recently held in Las Vegas served as a reminder of the growing issues with organized labor in the franchise industry. In particular, the traditional roles of franchisors and franchisees are being challenged by labor unions alleging franchisors and their franchisees are violating the rights of the franchisee’s employees.
In 1994, one of the most famous civil verdicts in American history was rendered. On August 18th of that year, a New Mexico jury awarded 81-year-old Stella Liebeck nearly $2.9 million in damages after she was burned by McDonald’s coffee that had spilled in her lap. The case sent shockwaves through the legal community, became a poster child for tort reform, and continues to be a running pop-culture joke even now, two decades later.
The issue of whether non-signatories to an arbitration agreement can be forced to arbitrate is not new, but it’s an issue that doesn’t arise often in the franchise context. Recently, however, the Seventh Circuit ruled that an undisclosed partner in a franchised business was required to arbitrate her claims in accordance with the franchise agreement’s terms, even though she never signed the agreement. Everett v. Paul Davis Restoration, Inc., Nos. 12–3407, 13–1036, 2014 WL 5573300 (7th Cir. Nov. 3, 2014).
Plaintiffs routinely sue franchisors for the alleged misconduct of their franchisees. In fact, it’s become an exceedingly common practice. To use a simple example, if a person slips and falls in the parking lot of a franchised Joe’s Burger Shack location, they’ll inevitably sue Joe’s Burger Shack Franchising, Inc. as well, even if Franchising didn’t cause the plaintiff’s fall and couldn’t have done anything to prevent it from happening.
