Daeryun Law Firm strengthens response to franchise disputes centered on corporate legal experts

Daeryun Law Firm announced on the 5th that it will respond to new legal demands such as strengthening the rights of small business owners and digital transformation of the food industry, focusing on the corporate legal group.

This is because, amid the recent series of lawsuits in the franchise industry due to disputes over franchise fees and head office owner risk, related demand is expected to increase as President Lee Jae-myung has pledged to overhaul the system to guarantee collective bargaining rights to franchisees. The purpose of this pledge is to legally codify the consultation process between headquarters and franchisees, which had been left to autonomy until now.

Considering this situation, Daeryun decided to provide multifaceted legal support centered on corporate lawyers who are familiar with corporate law, such as the Fair Trade Act and the Franchise Business Act. If a dispute arises, the group plans to conduct a preliminary review and form a team of 3 to 20 experts in each field, including corporate law, fair trade, finance, and labor, depending on the case to handle the case.

The Corporate Legal Group is headed by Attorney Gye-Jun Son (36th Judicial Research and Training Institute), a former member of the Fair Trade Commission, who handled cases such as Homeplus' violation of the Franchise Business Act and the corporate combination case of SK Telecom and SK Broadband's acquisition of T-Broad. Also participating are Shin Jong-soo, head of the Corporate Advisory Center (31st class), who has expertise in sales, acquisitions, and transactions, and Kim Won-sang, head of the Rehabilitation and Bankruptcy Center (43rd class), who represented a franchise owner in a lawsuit for the return of unfair profits from Pizza Hut Korea.

Also, Sangwan Oh (37th class), a lawyer with extensive experience in corporate criminal, civil, and administrative cases. The corporate legal group includes Attorney Bang In-tae (41st class), a former in-house lawyer at a large corporation and an expert in human resources and labor; Kim Yu-jeong, who specializes in tax and administrative litigation; Ji Min-hee, who advises on fair trade and M&A; and Kim Seo-young, who has extensive experience representing corporate rehabilitation and bankruptcy.

In addition, if necessary, we collaborate in real time with experts such as accountants, tax accountants, and labor attorneys. Key experts include accountant Park Soo-jin in the field of finance and accounting, tax accountant Lim Jeong-oh, who performs corporate tax adjustment and consulting, and labor attorney Nam Seo-hye, who has handled various labor cases.

Considering the nature of corporate legal affairs, which involves many medium to large-sized cases, an internal system was also established to increase case processing efficiency, such as establishing a special action headquarters that commands cases under the leadership of the headquarters. The headquarters is led by lawyers Cho Young-gon (16th class) and Yeo Sang-won (17th class) with 40 years of experience and manages criminal, civil, and administrative cases. Based on an accurate initial diagnosis, we plan to deploy professional lawyers to smoothly respond to medium to large-scale cases.

Kim Kook-il, CEO of Daeryun Management, said, "As disputes between franchisees and headquarters frequently occur, inquiries for related legal advice continue to come in, and in addition to franchise lawsuits, corporate-related criminal, administrative, and tax cases are also increasing. Due to the prolonged economic downturn, both companies and franchise owners are experiencing management difficulties, so a mutually beneficial solution is needed. Based on Daeryun's strengths, we will do our best for the benefit of our customers in any case."

Reporter Jeong Cheol-wook

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