Dean Fournaris

Dean Fournaris is a leading member of our Franchise and Distribution Practice Team and is resident in our metro Philadelphia, Pennsylvania office. For over thirty years, Dean has been a leading franchise and distribution lawyer licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Dean has represented public and private franchisors, multi-unit franchisees, licensors, manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, distributors, developers and investors in matters across the country.

Dean focuses his practice on developing, structuring, and maintaining franchise and distribution networks, transactions and contracts involving franchise and distribution systems, franchise registration and disclosure, manufacturing and operating systems and standards, and other related regulatory and transactional matters. He regularly advises franchise and distribution system clients in connection with all aspects of their franchisee-distributor, customer, supplier, and competitor relationships. Dean also prosecutes and defends franchise and distribution cases, including injunction actions, before state and federal courts and arbitration panels on behalf of franchisors, manufacturers, and distributors. Born and raised in a three-generation restaurant family, Dean remains very much involved in the restaurant business, providing decades long legal advice and counsel to one of the world’s leading quick-service restaurant systems as well as other food and beverage concepts.

A sought-after speaker with a keen business sense, Dean often lectures about franchising and distribution matters. Dean also has authored over fifty articles on these subjects in industry and legal publications. One of his articles, The Inadvertent Employer: Employment Decisions and Franchising, was cited authoritatively by the California Supreme Court in 2014 and the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2021.

Dean has been ranked by Chambers USA as one of the leading franchise lawyers in the United States since 2011. Dean is currently ranked by Chambers USA as a Band 2 attorney nationwide for franchising, where one client praised him for being “an eminently knowledgeable legal expert in the area of franchise and distribution law.” While another client said, “Dean is one of the most thoughtful and conscientious lawyers I’ve come across in this industry.” Dean has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for franchise law since 2007 and was named “Lawyer of the Year” in Philadelphia in 2021, the International Who’s Who for franchise law since 2010, and as a “Legal Eagle” by Franchise Times Magazine since 2004. Dean was also featured by Franchise Times Magazine in an article entitled, "Legal Hotshots under 40" in July 2001 and was named by Franchise Times to its “Franchise Lawyer Hall of Fame” in 2013.

Dean is a member of the American Bar Association's Forum on Franchising and serves on its Publications Committee. He is a founding member of the Franchise Law Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association and served as its Chair from 2003 to 2007. In addition, Dean is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Franchise Law Committee of the Corporation, Banking and Business Law Section and the New Jersey Bar Association's Franchise Law Committee.