About the Editors

• Pages: 399-400

399

About the Editors

RUPERT M. BARKOFF is chairman of the Franchise Team at Kilpatrick

Townsend & Stockton LLP, and specializes in the practice of franchise law. A

native of New Orleans, Louisiana, he received his B.A. degree from the Univer-

sity of Michigan in 1970, graduating with high distinction, and received his J.D.

degree, graduating magna cum laude in 1973, from the University of Michigan

Law School, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and articles editor

of the Michigan Law Review.

Mr. Barkoff served as chair of the American Bar Association Forum on

Franchising from 1989 to 1992 and as its immediate past chair from 1992 to

1995. He is co-creator and co-editor-in-chief of Fundamentals of Franchising

(1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions). Mr. Barkoff has been an active member of the

American Bar Association and served as a member of the Industry Advisory

Committee to the North American Securities Administrators Association’s Fran-

chise and Business Opportunities Project Group. He is also a former chair of the

Georgia State Bar’s Franchise Committee. Mr. Barkoff is a member of the edito-

rial board of LJN’s Franchising Business & Law Alert and a columnist for the

New York Law Journal, and has testified twice before congressional commit-

tees. He has published over 250 articles on franchise law and has been recog-

nized as one of the country’s leading franchise attorneys by the Best Lawyers in

America, the International Who’s Who of Franchise Lawyers, and Chambers

USA. He was the second recipient of the Forum on Franchising’s Lew Rudnick

Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his position at the law firm, he now

serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia Law School and as a

guest lecturer at Georgia State University’s Business School.

JOSEPH J. FITTANTE, JR. is a shareholder in the Larkin Hoffman Daly &

Lindgren Ltd. law firm, where he is a member of Larkin Hoffman’s Franchise

and Distribution Practice Group. He advises start-up and mature franchisors on

all aspects of the franchise relationship, including structuring the franchise rela-

tionship, registration and disclosure, dealing with state and federal regulators,

and terminating the franchise relationship. He served as the chair of the Ameri-

can Bar Association Forum on Franchising from 2011 to 2013. He also served

as a member of the Forum Governing Committee from 2007 to 2015 and co-

chaired the Forum’s 2008 Annual Meeting held in Austin, Texas. He has been

selected numerous times as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” by the Best

Lawyers in America, the oldest peer-review publication in the legal profession,

and as a “Leader in Franchise Law” by Chambers USA. Mr. Fittante has also