A franchise paralegal working in a law firm will be exposed to many different franchise systems and a wide range of franchisor business sizes. The paralegal working in-house will become deeply familiar with one company’s franchise operations. Each of these environments has its advantages.
It is not uncommon for in-house paralegals with franchise responsibilities to be involved in the business side as well as the legal side of franchise matters. They often participate in franchise department status meetings, asking questions and providing opinions on operational matters based on their experience with franchisees.
An in-house franchise paralegal will often be the main resource for information on the contents of a particular franchisee’s contract(s), which frequently leads to the development or upgrading of franchise contract databases. A related task is arranging for the production of document copies in the event of a dispute.
Franchisors outsource a wide range of responsibilities to their law firms; some handle matters in-house except for special circumstances and some delegate as much as possible to a law firm.