J. Michael Dady

J. Michael Dady, the founding member of Dady & Garner, P.A., for over 30 years has focused his practice on representing dealers, distributors and franchisees throughout the United States in business-threatening disputes with their suppliers and franchisors. Michael came to his specialty naturally in his last year of law school, when his parents' business, a beer distributorship, received a notice of termination from the supplier. He hit the books, read every case he could find on the topic, and, in conjunction with the firm he joined after law school, obtained an injunction preventing the termination. Thirty-three other threatened distributors joined the suit, and Michael and his colleagues succeeded in reinstating their rights or obtaining money damages.

Since that time, Michael has successfully represented a wide variety of clients—farm equipment and automobile dealers; alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage distributors; and franchisees in many industries, including frozen dessert, weight-loss centers, real estate agencies, drug stores, and quick-service restaurants. He recently won two multi-million dollar awards -- one on behalf of a terminated construction equipment dealer and another on behalf of terminated farm equipment dealers.

Michael's trial skills have helped him obtain court victories that have paved the way to legal relief for dealers, distributors and franchisees.  Two reported decisions in which he was successful, Lano Equipment Inc. v. Clark Equipment Company, 399 N.W.2d 694 (Minn. Ct. App. 1987) and Wadena Implement Co. v. Deere & Co., Inc., 480 N.W.2d 383 (Minn. App. 1992), are presently the last word on the law of injunctive relief for dealers in Minnesota.  In TCBY Systems, Inc. v. RSP Company, Inc., 1994 WL 460804 (8th Cir. 1994), Michael successfully established that the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing applies to franchise agreements, and that an instruction to the jury that the franchisor owed a duty of reasonableness to its franchisees was appropriate.

Michael has written and spoken nationally on franchise and distribution law issues. He has spoken at the American Bar Association's Annual Forum on Franchising, the International Franchise Association's Legal Symposium, the Annual National Franchise Law Institute, and the American Franchisee Association's Legal Symposium.  He served as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas Institute for Franchise Management, was a co-author of Franchising Realities and Remedies (published by Law Journal Press), and is a contributing author to Corporate Counsel's Guide to Distribution Counseling, published by Business Laws, Inc.  He is a past President of the Franchisee Lawyers Association and has served on the Governing Committee of the American Bar Association's Forum on Franchising.

Cases Michael has successfully concluded have been cited by lawyers and legal educators as models.  His opening statement and closing argument in the case of Koeppe v. Philbrick are featured in Persuasive Trial Arguments, published by the Minnesota Trial Lawyers Association (1991).  One of his appellate briefs is featured as a model in Art of Advocacy, published by Matthew Bender (1991).

Michael has long been included in The Best Lawyers in America, and is typically identified by Minnesota's Journal of Law & Politics in its annual list of Minnesota's Top 100 Super Lawyers and by Franchise Times in its annual list of "Legal Eagles." Minnesota Lawyer selected him as one of its ten "Attorneys of the Year" for 2000. The American Association of Franchisees and Dealers awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. He is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum (having obtained several results for clients in excess of one million dollars), and is certified as a civil trial specialist by both the National Board of Trial Advocacy and the Minnesota State Bar Association.  Michael also facilitates dispute resolution as an arbitrator and as a mediator, and is a member of both the CPR Franchise Panel of Distinguished Neutrals and The American Arbitration Association's panel of Commercial Arbitrators.

Michael was born and raised in Sisseton, South Dakota.  He received his undergraduate degree from Saint John's University in 1971, and his law degree from the University of Minnesota, where he was an editor of the Law Review, in 1975. Since graduating from law school, Michael has been active in several community and professional activities.  He is a former Chair of the Board of Regents of Saint John's University and a former Chair of the Board of Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and he currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the C.M. Russell Museum of Western Art, Great Falls, Montana. In his spare time, Michael enjoys operating a working cattle ranch, Two Star Ranch, in Northeastern South Dakota.

E-mail address:  jmdady@dadygarner.com