Susan leads Cozen O’Connor’s Franchising team and is a nationally recognized leader in the franchise law bar. As a certified franchise specialist with more than 30 years of experience, Susan is a trusted dealmaker, advocate, and regulatory guide.
Through her multidisciplinary practice, Susan represents franchisors, developers, sub-franchisors, and multi-unit franchisees, ranging from cutting-edge startups to Fortune 500 companies. Susan advises on corporate transactions, including franchise M&A, structures and registers new franchise programs, conducts audits, and assists with federal and state regulatory compliance. She also represents clients in franchisor-franchisee relations, defends government enforcement actions and investigations, and serves as an expert witness for franchisors in trials and arbitrations.
An important sub-area of Susan’s practice is her work on behalf of non-U.S. franchisors seeking to enter the U.S. marketplace and, likewise, U.S. franchise programs seeking to expand abroad. Foreign companies coming to the United States face unique regulatory challenges, and Susan is known for guiding international companies through the maze of U.S. franchise law. Susan has considerable experience in China, having lived in Beijing and Hong Kong, and speaks Mandarin.
Susan is certified as a Franchise & Distribution Law Specialist by the California Board of Legal Specialization and ranked Band 1 in Business-Franchising (Nationwide) by Chambers USA. She is one of only 16 attorneys in North America listed as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” by Who’s Who Legal – Franchise Law.
She is the former chair of the ABA’s Forum on Franchising, former chair of the California State Bar's Franchise and Distribution Law Advisory Commission, and the chair of the Industry Advisory Committee to the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA)’s Franchise and Business Opportunities Project Group.
Susan is regularly approved by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation to conduct franchise remedial trainings for franchisors as part of the settlement of state enforcement actions, and she is a co-editor of the American Bar Association’s The FTC Franchise Rule, 3rd Edition, recognized by practitioners as the authoritative guide to U.S. federal franchise law.
Susan earned her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from UCLA, and her law degree from UCLA School of Law. While in law school, she attended Yale-in-China Studies Center and taught at United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong on a U.S. State Department Teaching Fellowship. After law school, Susan won a fellowship from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China to undertake post-graduate study in economics at the University of Beijing, China, where she played on the women’s basketball team.