In 1989, freshly called to the Bar in Ontario, I set about looking for a job in my hometown of Toronto. It was, unfortunately, about 3 days before the start of the recession of the early 1990′s, so pickings were slim. But I managed to land a job as a junior associate at a firm, working for a senior lawyer in the then almost unknown area called “franchise law.” Twenty three years later I can say it was of the utmost luck that fate found me that position, as it remains 100% of what I practice today.
One of my first memories of that time is being put to work on a file where we were acting for a group looking to acquire Zack’s franchised frozen yogurt chain. While I do not recall what happened with that deal, I do know Zack’s ceased to operate a long time ago. What I also recall is a relatively lengthy list of new frozen yogurt franchises being offered in Canada, almost none of which survive to this day, and all of whom were part of a boom in a sector that did not exist before. The list of brand names then also included TCBY, Yogurty’s and I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt. The survivors, such as the Yogen Fruz brand, were the exception.
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