I spoke with a lot of franchise attorneys that wanted $2,000 to $3,000 to review an FDD I had for a fast food franchise I wanted to buy. Franchise Foundations has (and hopefully continues) an FDD Evaluator program. For a flat $500 fee, they review the FDD and franchise agreement, give you a thumbs up (or down) and list the contract provisions to consider or negotiate before signing on the line. The franchise attorney who does the review is known in the industry as Mr. Franchise. He owned a franchise in the past, has an MBA and gave me excellent advice. He discovered serious problems the franchise company was having and unbelievable provisions in the contract I almost signed. Saved me from making a 10 year, $500,000-plus royalties mistake. And I was so pumped up by the franchise company's slick brochures and emotional "Discovery Day" I attended at their corporate H.Q. Thank God my wife persuaded me to have a professional review the FDD before leaping into this.
Their head guy, known in the industry as "Mr. Franchise" (google him) is a nationally-known franchise expert, instructor, attorney and author. He consulted with a large franchisor I used to work for (Carl's Jr. - CKE), helped us with our legal docs and operations manuals, trained our marketing and management teams and gave us a lot of excellent ongoing advice.