Frequently Asked Questions | Mordechai Law Firm

Franchise agreements are drafted for the franchisor - that much is true. That they cannot be negotiated is not. Even inside a rigid template, the terms that matter most are usually movable: the reach of your personal guarantee, penalty clauses that are disproportionate to the breach, and a defined exit route. Sign without addressing them and you have taken on unlimited downside for a capped upside. That is not a legal problem. It is a business one.

AI is a drafting tool. It is not a strategy, and it is not a party to your deal. A language model produces clauses that read like precedent, but it does not know the leverage between you and the counterparty, the exposures specific to your business model, or which three terms are worth spending your negotiating capital on. It also carries no liability - when a template costs you the company, there is no one to hold accountable.

What you are paying for is judgment about which risks matter, and a lawyer who signs their name to that judgment.

Before the term sheet, and certainly before any deposit moves. Deal structure determines how much of the seller's history you inherit - historical liabilities, tax positions, employment claims. A share purchase and an asset purchase can carry the same price and radically different exposure.

Coming in early also means due diligence is scoped properly and the negotiation starts from your strongest position rather than from a signed document you must now renegotiate.

Fees follow the scope of the matter.

Fixed fee - for a defined deliverable: drafting a specific agreement, or a company formation. Priced against scope before work begins.

Hourly - for revisions to a draft, review of incoming agreements, and negotiation.

Retainer - for companies that need counsel available on an ongoing basis rather than matter by matter.

Scope and pricing are agreed in writing after an initial call. No engagement starts with an open-ended number.

A founders' agreement is not a sign of distrust - it is the constitutional framework of the company. It is executed while the parties are still aligned, precisely so that it can be relied upon when they are not.

It fixes the equity split, what happens on dilution, how decisions get made when founders disagree, what vests and when, and how a departing founder is bought out. Without it, a company with two equal founders and one dispute is a company that cannot make a decision. And no investor will fund that.

It depends on how often you sign things. A company signing customer agreements, hiring, and dealing with regulators generates legal exposure continuously - and reviewing it only when something breaks means paying to fix problems that cost far less to prevent.

A retainer puts a lawyer inside the business routine rather than at the end of it. Most clients find the value is less in the crises avoided than in the speed: deals close faster when counsel already knows the company.

The firm's practice is commercial and corporate - advice, structuring, and negotiation, with an emphasis on preventing disputes rather than winning them. Where a commercial matter does reach court, the firm leads the commercial strategy and brings in specialist litigation counsel to run the proceedings. The client gets a lawyer who knows the transaction in depth and a litigator who does this every day, rather than a compromise between the two.

No - and the saving is illusory. A lawyer acting for the franchisor, the fund, or the seller owes their duty to that client alone. They are not permitted to protect your position, and they will not draft against their own client's interest. Every ambiguity in a document you didn't negotiate will be resolved in the other side's favor, because that is who drafted it.

Independent counsel is the minimum condition for negotiating as an equal.

Yes - the firm works natively in English across the full commercial set: SAFEs and convertible instruments, share purchase agreements, round documents, SaaS and licensing terms, distribution and reseller agreements, and cross-border commercial contracts. Documents are drafted in English, negotiated in English with foreign counsel and investors, and executed under Israeli law or the governing law the deal requires. Nothing is translated after the fact.