Mario L Herman

I was faced with a protracted predicament with an unscrupulous Franchisor who after selling me a franchise on false pretenses, routinely reneged on critical support services, then misled on supposed efforts for helping me to resell my unviable franchise, and continued prolonging the ordeal with ever...y available ruse, delay and deception. I unfortunately was out of statutory protection under Maryland franchise law which was part of the Franchisor’s delay tactics, and contacted several lawyers to attempt to attain some form of restitution from my losses. It was only Mario who was willing to take the matter on a fee accessible basis and he offered just the right legal prowess, guidance and pursuit where with perseverance and follow-through, we were able to prevail with a successful settlement. Mario is in a class of his own, a true Champion of the Franchisee, offering the rare combination of legal expertise in his specialty with a real compassion that enabled me to finally get some justice from an unscrupulous Franchisor’s exploitative practices. It would have been hard to simply walk away from a 5-year protracted ordeal with considerable losses, but by virtue of Mario’s command of the law, the perfect application of legal principles, with balance, perseverance and ethicality, I was able to finally prevail. I will always be grateful for Mario’s service, and our success in this terribly difficult situation is testament of Mario’s legal prowess, dedication to his profession and his rare compassion.

I retained Mario to review the FDD (UFOC at the time) for the franchise I was thinking of buying. He went thoroughly through it, put post it notes on important points, sent that back to me to see all his comments. He also scheduled a meeting where he discussed his findings. Mario did not "nickel... and dime" for every email or phone call. He was caring, listened for what was important to me, and then kept those concerns in mind when reviewing the disclosure. I have also used larger firms, with partners and associates. I observed the partners, or senior lawyers, spending most of their interaction making sure the retainer was always well funded IN ADVANCE. I noticed the junior people were learning about franchising on my bill. I got billed for 5 minute emails, even if they were sharing news about the results of the latest football game. Having worked with Mario and with larger firms with less focus on franchising, and more on billable hours, I enthusiastically recommend Mario's services to anyone looking for an attorney that knows about franchise law and is focused on franchisee representation.