Bio

Amy concentrates her practice in domestic and international commercial transactions, general corporate, and franchise, licensing and distribution law. She represents franchisors on the structuring and operation of their franchise programs through all phases of development. She also represents non-U.S. based franchisors expanding into the U.S. market. Amy has extensive experience in structuring and drafting agreements for complex franchise, licensing and distribution relationships and in regulatory compliance. Her experience includes advising clients in connection with complex issues arising from the ownership of multiple brands, non-traditional opportunities, system restructuring and brand acquisition. Amy also has extensive experience in representing private equity firms in connection with their acquisitions of franchise companies. Amy represents clients of all sizes, from start-ups to mature companies with multi-national operations. Representative clients include leaders in the restaurant, retail and home services industries. With her broad range of experience, Amy essentially acts as general counsel to her clients, collaboratively maturing their businesses from infancy to prominence within their various industries. Amy’s commercial transactional practice includes counseling clients on mergers and acquisitions, complex commercial relationships, structuring, and drafting contracts for business transactions; while her general corporate practice includes corporate formation, strategic business alliances and joint ventures. Amy’s unique combination of corporate and franchise experience provides franchisors with comprehensive legal services to expand their franchise systems. Her experience includes representing franchisors in a myriad of industries to acquire and sell franchise companies of all sizes. Amy is a current member of the International Franchise Association Supplier Forum Advisory Board, and Chair of the International Franchise Association’s Annual Legal Symposium. Amy also serves as a member of the Franchise Advisory Board for the Illinois Attorney General. For her work in the field of franchise law, Amy was named a “Legal Eagle” by the Franchise Times, recognized by Who’s Who Legal, Leading Lawyers, Chambers and Partners and selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers of America® and was named The Best Lawyers’ 2014 Chicago Franchise Law “Lawyer of the Year”. In 2016, Amy was bestowed with the Crystal Compass Award for outstanding leadership by the International Franchise Association’s Women’s Franchise Committee and was also inducted in to the 2016 class of Women of Influence by the Chicago Business Journal. Before forming Cheng Cohen LLC, Amy was a partner with DLA Piper US LLP and its predecessor firms. She was a member of DLA’s Commercial, Corporate and Franchise & Distribution Practice Groups.