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Harry Ray chairs the Franchise Law Practice Group. He also participates in the Corporate, Intellectual Property & Technology and Labor & Employment Practice Groups. He is located in the Chattanooga, Tennessee office of Husch & Eppenberger, LLC.
Harry advises franchisors and franchisees in the intricacies of federal and state franchise law. He assists franchisors in determining whether proposed business plans constitute franchises under federal and state law, in preparing Uniform Franchise Offering Circulars, Franchise Agreements and in complying with disclosure and registrations laws. His services to prospective franchisees include reviewing Uniform Franchise Offering Circulars and related documents for fairness and assisting with the due diligence investigation of the franchisor.
Harry also has extensive experience in trademark and copyright law. He has years of experience in overseeing searches and the successful preparation and prosecution of applications to registration. He also aggressively protects the trademark rights of his clients from infringement. Similarly, Harry has assisted many clients in registering and protecting various forms of copyright materials. He recently served as a consultant in a high profile copyright infringement lawsuit.
Harry has a national practice in representing buying and marketing cooperatives in a wide array of industries. He has a website devoted to the topic of buying groups which may be found at www.buyinggroups.com. A key part of his services to buying and marketing groups is to assist them in developing and maintaining a comprehensive antitrust compliance program. As an important aspect of such antitrust compliance programs, Harry regularly attends the meetings held by his buying group clients in locations throughout the country. Harry also provides antitrust advice to numerous other companies, several of which are publicly held. As a result of representing such buying groups, manufacturers and distributors, Harry has substantial experience in distribution law.
Harry has also gained experience serving his business clients in several other areas, including general corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, commercial lending and borrowing, employment law, federal and state taxation, as well as estate planning.
Practice Areas:
Corporate, General Business Litigation, Intellectual Property & Technology, Labor & Employment, Franchise Law
Education:
J.D., Emory University School of Law (1979, with Distinction); Order of the Coif.
B.B.A., North Georgia College (1974, magna cum laude).
Admissions:
Tennessee (1979); Georgia (1979).
Legal Associations:
American Bar Association (Antitrust and Trademark Law Sections and Franchise Law Coalition); Tennessee Bar Association (Antitrust Law Section); State Bar of Georgia; Chattanooga Bar Association (Past President and Board of Governors).
Civic Organizations:
Hixson Chamber of Commerce (Past President); Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute (Past Chair, Board of Trustees); Pachyderm Club (Past President); State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Republican Party (Former member).
Publications:
Author: "Practicing Preventive Law in the Antitrust Area," published by the Tennessee Bar Journal, May/June, 1993;
The Darker Side of Networking - Price Fixing, published in the Journal of the Tennessee Medical Association, September, 1993.
Speaking Engagements:
Presentation: "Antitrust Laws Affecting Buying Groups," Nx-Trend Technology, Inc., Colorado;
Numerous other speaking engagements on antitrust law, intellectual property law, franchise law, employment law, taxation, and estate planning. | 