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Bethany Appleby

Bethany Appleby

Of Counsel
Boston
About

Bethany has over 20 years of experience of helping franchisors and other businesses solve legal problems and achieve their goals. She handles a wide range of commercial transactional matters and resolves business and other disputes efficiently and effectively through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and litigation.

Bethany is on the American Arbitration Panel of Commercial Arbitrators and has a particular depth of experience representing clients in arbitration and court proceedings relating to parties' obligations to arbitrate.

In addition to litigation and arbitration skills, Bethany understands the in-house perspective and provides a broad range of legal and business advice from her experience serving as Chief Legal Officer (General Counsel role) for one of the largest global quick serve restaurant brands in the world.

Bethany's practice focuses on all aspects of franchise law and regulation, and she has represented franchisors in many industries, including restaurant and food service, hotels and hospitality, educational, athletic, and childcare franchises, and real estate brokerage companies. She is a frequent writer and speaker for the American Bar Association (ABA) Forum on Franchising and International Franchise Association and has been a member of the Governing Committee of the ABA Forum on Franchising, a past Editor-in-Chief of the ABA Franchise Law Journal, and is a member of the Franchise Times Legal Eagles Hall of Fame.

Areas of FocusFranchise
Bar admissionsConnecticutMassachusetts
CourtsUnited States Court of Appeals for the Second CircuitUnited States District Court for the District of ConnecticutUnited States District Court for the District of MassachusettsUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of New YorkUnited States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Education
  • J.D., Doctor of Law, University of Connecticut School of Law
    Highest honors
    Notes and Comments Editor, The Connecticut Law Review
  • B.A., Yale University
    magna cum laude
    Served as General Manager and Training Director of WYBC, Yale's college-commercial radio station
    Attended Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany (Junior Term Abroad)

Awards

  • 2025 Franchise Times Legal Eagle

Bylines

  • Author, U.S. Franchisors Embracing Operational and Other Innovations During the COVID-19 Pandemic – An Unexpected and Perhaps Enduring Benefit?, TaylorWessing's Newsletter Franchise and Distribution, No. 24 (January 2021)
  • Co author with Gary R. Batenhorst, Both Sides Now: Making the Transition from Outside to In-house Counsel, 40 Franchise L.J. 149 (Summer 2020)
  • Co author with W. Michael Garner, and Karen Boring Satterlee, Editors, Franchise Desk Book, Selected State Laws, Commentary, Annotations (3d. Ed, 2019) (multi-volume treatise)
  • Co author, Chapter 8: Default and Termination, The Annotated Franchise Agreement (2018)

Seminars

  • Co-presenting with Abhishek Dube, W-14: Complying with New Prohibitions of Questionnaires and Acknowledgment, ABA 46th Annual Forum on Franchising: Franchising is Bigger in Texas (Dallas, TX 2023)
  • Co-presenting with Tomasz Cyrol, Arthur L. Pressman, Olivia Gast, Julien Rivet and, Martine De Koning, Mediation Skills for Building and Keeping Franchise Relations, International Bar Association (November 2022)
  • Co-presenting with Andrew Bleiman, I Want It My Way: Brand Standards Disputes in Franchise Systems, ABA 45th Forum on Franchising (San Diego, CA 2022)
  • Co-presenting with Brian Balconi, and Kathleen Panek, Best Practices and Tips in Law Department Administration, IFA 54th Annual Legal Symposium (Washington, D.C., 2022)
  • Co-presenting with Gaylen Knack, Structuring and Negotiating Essential Vendor Agreements and Dealing With Financial Terms, Discounts, and Rebates, ABA 44th Forum on Franchising (Atlanta, GA 2021)
  • Host, Roundtable Discussion, System Stumbling Blocks – Lessons from Litigation, at the International Franchise Association Virtual Legal Symposium (May 2021)
  • Presenter, Topic: Crisis Management in the "Fake News" Era, International Franchise Association Franchise Law Virtual Summit, (August 2020)
  • Co-presenting with Kerry R. J. Olson, Sarah A. Walters, Shelley Weatherbie, The Law Department of the Future: Innovation and a New Business Model for In-house Counsel, ABA 41st Forum on Franchising, Intensive Session (Nashville, TN 2018)

Memberships And Affiliations

  • American Arbitration Association Panel of Commercial Arbitrators and Panel of Consumer Arbitrators
  • American Bar Association (ABA) Forum on Franchising:
    • Co-chaired ABA Forum Annual Meeting in Denver (2019), which came in under budget and with the all-time attendance record of almost 1,000 attendees, and served on the Annual Planning Committee in 2018 (Nashville) and 2020 (Virtual)
    • Governing Committee Member (2017 – 2023)
    • Editor-in-Chief, Franchise Law Journal (2013 – 2016)
    • Women's Caucus Officer (2017 – 2020)
    • Diversity Caucus Officer (2020- 2022)

My latest insights

Publication
Pen_Paper_Notepad_S_0563

What is an escalation clause, and do I have one in my franchise agreement?

16 April 2024 .4 minute read

Connect

Phone

+1 617 406 6048
(Work, Boston)
+1 617 406 6148
(Fax, Boston)
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