News from around the world: recent developments in franchise law

Flávia Amaral

Flávia Amaral is a partner in the Brazilian firm, Vinhas e Redenschi Advogados. Graduated in Law from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, postgraduated in Civil Procedure Law and with specialization in Corporate Law.

Flávia Amaral coordinates the Intellectual Property, Digital Law and Privacy, Franchising and Commecial Contracts area of the Firm. Flávia has published several articles and spoke in several seminars related to franchising, data protection, IP and fashion law. Flávia is a teacher of the IP and Entertainment Law Post-Graduation Course of the Escola Superior da Advocacia of the Brazilian Bar Association, of the Fashion Law Post-Gradutiation Course of Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, of the legal training courses of Associação Brasileira de Franchising (ABF) and a former teacher of the Fashion Law Post-Graduation Course of Universidade Santa Marcelina, all in Brazil.

Since 2009 she has been nominated by the international publications Who's Who Legal and LACCA Approved for her practice in franchising and IP. She is currently Coordinator of the IP and Fashion Law Group of the Brazil-Italy Chamber of Commerce, in São Paulo (Italcam); Associate Cultural Director of Associação Paulista de Propriedade Intelectual (ASPI) and member of the Health, Beauty and Well-Being Group of Associação Brasileira de Franchising (ABF), as well as appointed Country Expert for distribution and agency agreements at the International Distribution Institute (IDI).

Melissa Murray

Melissa advises international and regional franchisors, distributors, hotel operators, developers and service providers on their operations in the Middle East and specifically the United Arab Emirates. She specialises in all forms of strategic and operational franchise, agency, intellectual property, and commercial law governing franchise operations throughout the Gulf and Middle East. Her experience includes franchising and exploitation of intellectual property rights in the fashion & retail, food & beverage, childcare & education, real estate, sporting goods, pharmaceutical, IT services and general retail industries. Melissa is admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland and holds an LLB from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance.

Kendal Tyre

Kendal Tyre is a partner in Nixon Peabody’s Washington, DC office and serves as Co-Leader of the firm’s Global Franchising and Distribution practice. In addition, Kendal is the Publications Officer of the IBA International Franchising Committee. With over 25 years of experience, Kendal counsels companies expanding through master franchising, area development franchising, international franchising, management contracts, joint venture agreements, licensing agreements and product distribution arrangements throughout the world. He also has extensive experience structuring, negotiating and enforcing domestic and international franchise, license, distribution and acquisition agreements. Kendal is currently serving his second term as a member of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa (TACA), which is a U.S. federal advisory committee that advises the U.S. government on U.S. trade policy in Africa.

Luciana Gonçalves Bassani

Luciana Gonçalves Bassani is a partner in the Firm Gameleira, Pelagio, Fabião e Bassani, Sociedade de Advogados. Graduated in law from the University of São Paulo; specialized in contracts by the Centro de Extensão Universitária, São Paulo and postgraduate in law and economics by Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro.

Luciana Bassani coordinates the corporate area of the Firm, focusing on closed-held corporations, limited liability companies, family holdings and startups. It coordinates corporate M&A operations, both by sellers and buyers, especially mergers, acquisitions and expansion or restructuring plans. In addition to the corporate area, Luciana Bassani has significant experience in the elaboration and negotiation of commercial agreements in general, mainly franchise agreements, distribution and contracts involving intellectual property rights. It has published articles on commercial and corporate matters, especially related to franchising.

Since 2011 she has been cited by the international publication Who's Who Legal for its performance in the franchise area. She is a member of the International Bar Association – IBA and is currently the Co-Chair of the Franchising Committee for the mandate 2019/2020 and affiliated with Closely Held and Growing Business Enterprises. Since 2010 acts as Country Expert for Franchising of the IDI – International Distribution Institute, Torino, Italy. She has been a speaker at several international conferences. Luciana is fluent in English and French.

Silvia Bortolotti

Silvia Bortolotti is a partner at the law firm Buffa, Bortolotti & Mathis (Turin, Italy). She is specialized in international commercial transactions, cross border litigation and arbitration. Her extrajudicial practice covers domestic and international commercial contracts. Ms Bortolotti is a founding member and Secretary General of the International Distribution Institute (IDI), member of several international associations - the International Bar Association (IBA), the Commission on Commercial Law and Practice (CLP) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Italian representative of EuroFranchise Lawyers (EFL) - and advisor to several Italian associations (e.g. Assofranchising). Acknowledged by Who’s Who Legal 2020 as the most highly regarded Italian franchise lawyer, she often lectures in several conferences and training courses about international commercial contracts, commercial agency, distributorship, franchising and cross border trade. Moreover, she is a frequent contributor to publications on every aspect of Italian and international commercial law. She has also co-authored the book Contratti di distribuzione (Distribution contracts), Wolters Kluwer, 2016 (chapters on distribution and franchising), as well as some ICC publications, including ICC Model International Franchising Contract (2011), Using franchising to take your business international (2014) and the ICC model contract on distributorship (2016).