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Franchising Business & Law AlertLJN NewslettersNewsSections

Movers & Shakers

By ALM Staff | Law Journal Newsletters |
November 22, 2010

Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and San Francisco-based Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP will be merging effective January 2011, with the combined 640-lawyer firm to be known as Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. It will have offices in 14 U.S. cities, as well as in Stockholm, Dubai and Tokyo. “This is very exciting. It's a great opportunity that broadens the platform for both firms,” said Rupert Barkoff, head of the franchise practice at Kilpatrick Stockton and a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors. Townsend has a very strong reputation for its work in intellectual property, trademarks, and patents, and Barkoff observed that “a trademark license is usually no more than one step from being a franchise.” Geographic reach is a motivation for the merger, as Townsend is focused on major U.S. cities in the West and Tokyo, whereas Kilpatrick Stockton is strong in the U.S. East Coast. The full-service practice depth of Kilpatrick Stockton will enable Townsend to retain franchise work that had previously been farmed out to other firms, Barkoff added. The combined firm will rank among the 70 largest law firms in the United States.

After three years at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P., Mike Drumm has started Drumm Law, LLC, in Denver. “Franchising has become a fundamental aspect of small business,” he said, adding that, as a small-business owner himself, he has “focused on cutting our overhead to the bare minimum, and we pass the saving on to our clients.” Drumm observed that “things are definitely looking up for lower cost investments but until the banks free up capital, higher cost investments such as restaurants will struggle.”

Rupert Barkoff, partner at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP (Atlanta), and Andrew Selden, shareholder at Briggs and Morgan (Minneapolis), were named the recipients of the second Lewis G. Rudnick Award at the ABA Forum on Franchising in October. The award honors Lewis Rudnick, a founding member of the Forum and senior partner of Rudnick & Wolfe, now DLA Piper; Rudnick died in January 2009.

In their 30-plus year careers, Barkoff and Selden, both members of this newsletter's Board of Editors, have been leaders in the development of programs to educate attorneys about franchise law, and they have contributed numerous articles and chaired conferences and presented at many sessions for the ABA and the International Franchise Association. Together, Barkoff and Selden created the ABA's “Fundamentals of Franchising” seminar to acquaint attorneys with franchise law, which has become one of the signature programs of the Forum on Franchising. Barkoff and Selden each have been chair of the Forum, and they are co-editors of Fundamentals of Franchising, now in its third edition.

The Forum also recognized two attorneys as the 2010 Future Leaders: Dawn Newton of Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley LLP (Oakland, CA), and Jayne Edmonds of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (Toronto).

Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and San Francisco-based Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP will be merging effective January 2011, with the combined 640-lawyer firm to be known as Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton. It will have offices in 14 U.S. cities, as well as in Stockholm, Dubai and Tokyo. “This is very exciting. It's a great opportunity that broadens the platform for both firms,” said Rupert Barkoff, head of the franchise practice at Kilpatrick Stockton and a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors. Townsend has a very strong reputation for its work in intellectual property, trademarks, and patents, and Barkoff observed that “a trademark license is usually no more than one step from being a franchise.” Geographic reach is a motivation for the merger, as Townsend is focused on major U.S. cities in the West and Tokyo, whereas Kilpatrick Stockton is strong in the U.S. East Coast. The full-service practice depth of Kilpatrick Stockton will enable Townsend to retain franchise work that had previously been farmed out to other firms, Barkoff added. The combined firm will rank among the 70 largest law firms in the United States.

After three years at Snell & Wilmer L.L.P., Mike Drumm has started Drumm Law, LLC, in Denver. “Franchising has become a fundamental aspect of small business,” he said, adding that, as a small-business owner himself, he has “focused on cutting our overhead to the bare minimum, and we pass the saving on to our clients.” Drumm observed that “things are definitely looking up for lower cost investments but until the banks free up capital, higher cost investments such as restaurants will struggle.”

Rupert Barkoff, partner at Kilpatrick Stockton LLP (Atlanta), and Andrew Selden, shareholder at Briggs and Morgan (Minneapolis), were named the recipients of the second Lewis G. Rudnick Award at the ABA Forum on Franchising in October. The award honors Lewis Rudnick, a founding member of the Forum and senior partner of Rudnick & Wolfe, now DLA Piper; Rudnick died in January 2009.

In their 30-plus year careers, Barkoff and Selden, both members of this newsletter's Board of Editors, have been leaders in the development of programs to educate attorneys about franchise law, and they have contributed numerous articles and chaired conferences and presented at many sessions for the ABA and the International Franchise Association. Together, Barkoff and Selden created the ABA's “Fundamentals of Franchising” seminar to acquaint attorneys with franchise law, which has become one of the signature programs of the Forum on Franchising. Barkoff and Selden each have been chair of the Forum, and they are co-editors of Fundamentals of Franchising, now in its third edition.

The Forum also recognized two attorneys as the 2010 Future Leaders: Dawn Newton of Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley LLP (Oakland, CA), and Jayne Edmonds of Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP (Toronto).

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