Il Duce means leader in Italian.
It is a term that is often applied by those that choose to influence others in a dictatorial manner.
A national franchise association assists the setting up and marketing of business format franchises in that country.
They lobby and represent the franchisors’ view and oppose franchisees when their interests are in conflict with their masters’.
Most national associations are members of the World Franchise Council, WFC. The WFC is headquartered in the franchise powerhouse nation of New Zealandand controlled by the U.S. International Franchise Association.
Each Nation: Every country has one lawyer who is recognized as Il Duce, the general, the top dog or alpha male (ie. the individual in the community to whom the others follow and defer.).
He wields influence primarily through the national franchise association where he is often the general counsel, Chairman of the Board or other such title.
Their job is to co-ordinate the defence and promotion of franchising within their country. They are profit maximizing businesspeople who rely on the public’s erroneous belief in their professionalism and impartiality. They give advice freely when they there is no client:solicitor duty to do so (before a contract is formed) and remain in the shadows otherwise.
Because of the credence good nature of legal services and their closely guarded monopoly on providing legal services, many franchise lawyers act as fraudulent experts. They are fully aware of this which explains why there are so many unhappy lawyers.
The Il Duce is seen as an expert who is never personally tested on his abilities by a discerning superior: He never goes to Court. These cowards:
- control their clients (franchisors) by preying on their fears of what franchisees could accomplish if franchisees were smart and organized (the weakest franchisee group is stronger than the strongest franchisor),
- promotes the self-serving and hazardous thought that you should talk to only to a franchise lawyer (akin to having a murderer’s brother performng the autopsy),
- make sure the most lucrative legal service referrals (international expansion from North American franchisors) go only to lawyers who “play by the rules” (franchise lawyers who “support” the franchisors’ position),
- speak to governments under the guise of an “impartial” expert (although they NEVER take on franchisee cases),
- punishes franchisee advocates by suing them into bankruptcy (just for fun and as an example),
- award revenue-generating opportunities (speaking at association-sponsored trade shows) to themselves and “their team”,
- write carefully crafted legal columns in the national franchisor-sponsored trade rag (sales: see Franchise Canada magazine or pseudo-journalism, see Franchise Times),
- a senior partner of an internationally influential multi-line law firm (allies of friends into political back rooms),
- degrades the political process credibility by showing that money buys laws,
- keep active in the state, national and international bar associations, and, especially
- the American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising (the latest and greatest ways to serve those that buy 95% of their services: ie. franchisors),
FranchiseFool.com 
Yes! The franchisors of the World in the Global Economy band together to teach the emerging countries how to use the cheap labor and cheap “venture” capital of naive MOMS and POPS who want to OWN a business of their own that so often is REALLY just a vehicle to grow gross sales for the franchisor upon which he takes his royalties/
I remember on Blue Mau Mau in 2007, how Andy Selden, a respected attorney, who was once the head of the forum on Franchising for the ABA, I believe, remarked how “SILLY” it was that the United States FTC Rule that governed franchising mandated ALL of the items of disclosure except the “earnings claims” Item 19 of the State Disclosure Document.
Silly non-disclosure for almost 30 years by the great majority of the franchisors that serves the interests of the ABA attorneys who always drive the getaway cars seems to be the plan for the future.
Pretty disgusting stuff when “silly” leads to suicides and illness and lost lives and fortunes of those little unimportant people who invest in very high risk franchises where the risk has been hidden under cover of government regulation with the full approval of the leaders of the The American Bar Association and the Department of Justice.
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