Joyce Mazero Receives WFF Leadership Award

March 03, 2010 // Franchising.com // DALLAS - Joyce Mazero, lead partner of the Haynes and Boone, LLP Restaurant, Foodservice and Retail Industries Practice Group and the Franchise and Distribution Practice Group, has been named the 2010 recipient of the Women's Foodservice Forum (WFF) Leadership Award.

The award is presented annually to a female foodservice executive. Ms. Mazero is the first recipient to be honored for her work in a field serving other foodservice executives. As a restaurant, foodservice and franchise attorney, Ms. Mazero was selected for her leadership, professional and legal achievements, and contributions to the foodservice industry.

"I am honored to be recognized by WFF for my leadership on behalf of women and WFF," Ms. Mazero said. "The only way to achieve for ourselves is to achieve for other women, too. Every work day. Every year. The need to support women in the workplace crosses all boundaries - business, politics, ethnicity and age. It is our reality."

Under Ms. Mazero's leadership, Haynes and Boone's restaurant, foodservice and franchise practices have become a legal adviser of choice for national and global restaurant chains, food suppliers, manufacturers and distributors. Franchisors and developers rely on the firm's more than 20 franchise lawyers to understand the industry and guide them through complex issues they face.

Ms. Mazero has substantial business experience assisting clients in developing strategy, structuring and negotiating creative deals, implementing change and resolving disputes for product and service-based domestic and international license, franchise, distribution, and shared services systems. This includes organizational and governance matters for purchasing groups, cooperatives, manufacturers, suppliers, joint ventures, and sales representative systems as well as the full gauntlet of relationship, competition, and enforcement issues associated with such systems.

Among her various honors and awards, Ms. Mazero has been named one of the nation's leading franchise attorneys by Chambers USA. She received the prestigious Band 1 ranking in 2008 and 2009, a designation awarded to only seven franchise attorneys nationally.

Ms. Mazero holds numerous leadership positions in the legal and foodservice industries. She served as a Board Member of the Women's Foodservice Forum (2004-2009), Chair of the WFF Governance Committee (2006-2009) and is currently working on board readiness matters for WFF. She serves on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Advocacy Alliance Board and in January 2010, began serving a one year term on the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) Board of Trustees' Development Committee. She is Co-Chair of the DFW Chapter of Women Corporate Directors (2008-present); a member of the Hospitality Management Board of Governors for the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management at the University of North Texas (2008-present); a member of the Advisory Board of Nina McLemore (2007-present), a New York fashion house; and named among the "20 to Watch" in 2007 by Franchise Times.

Haynes and Boone, LLP is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Washington, D.C., Mexico City and Moscow, providing a full spectrum of legal services. With almost 550 attorneys, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the largest law firms in the nation by The National Law Journal. The firm has been recognized as one of the "Best Corporate Law Firms in America" (Corporate Board Member Magazine, 2001-2009), as one of "The Best 20 Law Firms to Work For" (Vault.com, 2009), and as a Top 100 law firm for both diversity (MultiCultural Law Magazine, 2009) and women (Women 3.0, 2008).

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