It's been a little more than a year since Michael Sukenik ascended the legal throne at Dallas-based Smoothie King Franchises Inc. as its general counsel and corporate secretary. In that time, he's hired two lawyers and two paralegals, bringing the size of his team to three attorneys and three paralegals.

Sukenik brought global experience to his position at Smoothie King, having directed legal affairs for two of the brands owned by Yum! Brands Inc., Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, in Latin America, and supported the international business across three other continents. Prior to joining Yum! in 2013, Sukenik was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

How did you end up at Smoothie King?

I was really hungry to get back into the domestic space because I had come up as a litigator focused on U.S. law, and I was primarily concentrating on international matters at Yum!. Obviously, there's so much to do within the U.S., especially for a company like Smoothie King, which is experiencing fantastic growth and has essentially doubled in size over the last four or five years.

What do you think is the GC's role in growing a company?

I think the GC's role is very central to that growth because unlike some other functions, we touch every piece of the business. My responsibility and my team's responsibility is to figure out the best way for us to market, to reach our customers and to protect our [intellectual property], our data and ensure data security. When it comes to leveraging technology and supply chain, we are very centrally involved in striking those deals and negotiating the best terms. Then of course for a business like ours, which is also retail- and franchise-based, our role is about drafting and signing the development agreements and franchise contracts and making sure we do so in a fast, expeditious manner that doesn't slow growth.

There is also [mergers and acquisitions], which is very much a legal-led process to look at other opportunities to expand both geographically, but also perhaps in other verticals and other parts of the food and active lifestyle space. The last part is advertising and regulatory. We do many licensing deals, and trademark, branding and marketing compliance are at the core, and legal is very much on the ground floor of those conversations.

Given your global experience, what do you think are the challenges for legal departments that want to expand globally?

One challenge is understanding the local business and compliance climate in which you are trying to operate. Finding the right partner is key to leverage local know-how, which is often a challenge because you want to make sure that not only do they have the same priorities and the same vision for where they want to take your brand, but you also want to make sure that they're doing it the right way.

Do you have a go-to Smoothie King product?

I absolutely do. My usual is called the Activator Coffee, a high-protein, lower-calorie smoothie that has cold brewed coffee in it.

Kristen Rasmussen is an Atlanta-based reporter who covers corporate law departments and in-house attorneys.