Rich

Rich Reinis is a corporate strategist and litigator with firsthand in-house corporate experience.

Before joining the firm, Rich founded, developed, and ran a leading business law firm for 20 years. He left that firm to bring Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to Southern California, serving a newly formed company as CEO and General Counsel for six years. During that time, the company became the largest Krispy Kreme franchisee and the subject of articles in the national press. With this unique business perspective in place, Rich returned to private practice to apply his experience to a diverse trial practice.

Rich advises clients in the restaurant, apparel, education, franchise, real estate, retail, construction, wholesale, agriculture, veterinary, grocery, and other industries. His impressive experience includes resolving disputes involving trade secrets, intellectual property, trust and other probate matters, insolvency and restructuring work, wage and hour class action defense, employment disputes, construction contracting, partnership and corporate dissolutions, and much more. His personal franchise knowledge supports an active franchise practice.

In addition to a distinguished record as a lawyer, Rich was also a real estate developer, wine exporter, apparel manufacturer, and surf label licensor, not to mention his success in franchising. This background is critical to resolving complicated disputes. For example, to resolve an over-leveraged business problem, he assisted in the restructuring and sale of a music publishing business. He was lead counsel in two trust disputes, the franchising of surf parks, developing sales teams for an agriculture company and a veterinary services company, the sale of a pre-school, franchising a quick-lube concept, restructuring a bakery-restaurant business, and investigating a potential financial fraud at a non-profit organization.

In 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Rich to the California Fast Food Council representing the interests of franchisors. He serves a four-year term on this state agency consisting of four business representatives, four union representatives, and an experienced political operative. The members are charged with overseeing wages and working conditions in the industry.

Rich’s business and legal experience informs a presentation he made all over the U.S., Canada and Australia on management under pressure. He delivered nearly 200 speeches to CEO groups, national conventions, professional organizations, boards of directors, and management teams. He also presents webinars on family business, speaks on industry panels, and is a keynote speaker on franchising issues and turnaround management. Rich also delivered public presentations for the U.S. Department of Labor on compliance issues in the apparel industry, and at business schools on myriad topics, including a lecture series on entrepreneurship.