Helen Fotinos

First Year of Call
Ontario, 2002

Areas of Practice
Franchising

Description
Helen is a partner in the Corporate group in Toronto and serves as the Global Lead of Franchising and Distribution across all Dentons offices. She is also the National Lead of Dentons’ Retail practice in Canada, and the Canada-Region Sector Leader for Consumer Products and Services. Her practice focuses on all aspects of franchise/distribution law and related corporate/commercial contracts and disputes.

She has over 22 years of experience as both external and in-house General Counsel to Canadian and multinational retailers, franchisors and distributors across a diverse range of industries, including apparel, luxury goods, health and wellness, beauty/cosmetics, fitness, education, consumer products and services, professional services, real estate, hotels, quick-service restaurants, hospitality, food and beverage, pet care, automotive, car rental and several others.

Helen regularly advises domestic and international clients on new market entry, expansion and exit strategies, franchise disclosure compliance and the preparation of franchise disclosure documents, the drafting and negotiation of franchise, license and distribution agreements, system changes, terminations, transfers and renewals, operational optimization, supply chain management, risk mitigation and litigation strategy. She works with both emerging and established brands, and has extensive experience developing integrated business and legal strategies that assist clients in managing both day-to-day operations as well as long-term goals. She is known for direct style, and for delivering pragmatic legal solutions that align with business objectives to add value, solve problems, and support strategic, scalable, risk-managed growth.

Helen is also a legal service innovator, and has introduced several client focused file management and pricing structures, such as The Virtual GC, that offer clients a full suite of services on an in-house counsel model, at fixed fee rates in order to provide clients with greater transparency and budget certainty.

Helen is a frequent presenter at franchise, distribution and retail conferences, and is consistently recognized as a leading franchise and retail lawyer in numerous Canadian and international industry publications, including Chambers Canada, Lexpert, Best Lawyers in Canada, Who’s Who Legal and others.