Product Distribution and Franchise

About us

Reinhart's Product Distribution and Franchise Team is unique. Franchise and distribution lawyers often focus their practice either on trial work or corporate work, but rarely both. Our team includes trial lawyers and corporate attorneys who combine their experience from courtrooms and boardrooms to better serve clients facing distribution and franchise law challenges. Working together, we develop solutions that are practical and cost effective.

What we do

We solve problems and resolve disputes affecting the distribution of a wide variety of products and services on national and international levels. 

We help clients buy and sell businesses. We design distribution networks, structure licenses, create sales and purchase documents. We advise on pricing laws and programs, provide counseling regarding Internet sales and other types of distribution and help clients navigate complex state and federal regulations.

When unavoidable disputes do arise, we have extensive litigation experience. We represent clients throughout the United States in mediations, arbitrations and trials. 

Our experience

The Product Distribution and Franchise Team members have significant experience in virtually every area of product distribution and franchise law including the following:

• Antitrust compliance and defense
• Complex commercial disputes
• Contract negotiation, review and counseling
• Dealer and distributor disputes
• Franchise law compliance, counseling and disclosures
• Internet distribution issues
• Pricing and advertising law compliance
• Product recalls
• Sales representative and agency laws
• Software licensing and software development
• Supply chain counseling
• Termination and nonrenewal of business relationships
• Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law and other dealer laws

Our approach

We know most clients want to prevent disputes before they arise. We regularly counsel clients about sales and marketing programs, dealer and franchise laws, trade secrets and other distribution issues to help them avoid problems. Our corporate and litigation team members work together to make this happen. Our litigators help the corporate team members prevent litigation. Our corporate team members help our litigators to better understand transactions and other complex corporate issues.

And we work hard to understand our clients' businesses and goals. This allows us to work with our clients to develop model sales documents; sales representative, franchise and dealer agreements; supply agreements; sales terms and conditions and other forms and policies designed to anticipate the kinds of problems other companies have been forced to litigate.

We have extensive experience in many areas, so we do not have to recreate the wheel when distribution and franchise issues arise. Another benefit:  We charge "Milwaukee rates," not Chicago, New York or Los Angeles rates.

Examples of our work

• Franchise Disputes. A client paid more than $1 billion to purchase a competitor and unknowingly acquired a group of disgruntled franchisees who claimed the right to hundreds of millions of dollars of the client's historical sales into their "exclusive" territories. Members of Reinhart's Product Distribution and Franchise Team persuaded the Federal District Court to grant our client summary judgment rejecting the franchisees' argument and avoiding a six-week jury trial.
  
• FTC and State Attorney General Investigations. Occasionally, the FTC will bring an investigation against a company concerning its distribution methods or proposed acquisitions. The Product Distribution and Franchise Team members have persuaded federal and state investigators and prosecutors to "close the books" without pursuing formal claims on several occasions. These had included federal antitrust investigations and investigations by state attorneys general.
  
• Dealer Network Consolidations. A client bought one of its major competitors and consolidated the two companies' distribution networks. When a disappointed distributor sued, Reinhart's Product Distribution and Franchise Team members successfully defended the consolidation from the first complaint in New Jersey State Court through the last appeal to the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, winning a judgment of no liability.
  
• Internet Distribution and Protection of Trademarks. Several retailers began misusing some of our client's trademarks and engaged in "cybersquatting." We were able to help the client stop the misuse of its trademarks and helped implement Internet marketing policies to help prevent problems in the future.
  
• Sales Representative Disputes. Reinhart represented one of the nation's largest chocolate producers after a former sales representative claimed the exclusive right to all business in Mexico and sued in California alleging a laundry list of statutory, tort and contract violations. Team members won a no-liability decision for our client.
  
• Trade Secret Claims. After losing an important supply relationship with a Reinhart manufacturing client, a supplier alleged theft of its trade secrets, claimed $250 million in damages and hired as its counsel an attorney who had recently won a similar $100 million trade secret award against a major U.S. automobile manufacturer. Reinhart won a defense verdict rejecting all claims against its client.
  
• Warranty Disputes. One of the world's largest crane manufacturers sued a Reinhart client, allegedly for supplying out-of-spec components that caused a recall of an entire fleet of construction equipment. Reinhart successfully defended the component supplier and ultimately won an attorney-fee award.