Panera Bread. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Flynn Restaurant Group, the largest restaurant franchisee nationwide, has made a seat at the table for a new top lawyer.

The San Francisco-based company promoted Jacqueline “Jaci” Lee to general counsel, just more than a year after she joined as associate GC, according to a statement announcing her promotion. She succeeds Jane Froyd, who left Flynn Restaurant Group this month to serve as senior vice president and GC of Americas at Treasury Wine Estates, according to Froyd's LinkedIn profile.

Jacqueline Lee of Flynn Restaurant Group.

For a legal department that unusually handles litigation in-house, Lee—who had been a litigator in the Silicon Valley office of Jones Day since she graduated from University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2006—is a smart choice.

“What the company was looking for and what we continue to look for is folks who love to litigate and strategize and have an interest in the business and how that intertwines with litigation,” she said in an interview.

In addition to Lee, Flynn Restaurant Group's legal department includes an associate GC and director of licensing, though Lee said she plans to expand the team within the next year.

“We are like a mini boutique litigation firm that is in-house,” she said, adding: “Flynn Restaurant Group is growing, so I do want to grow our size where we're still lean but can still provide strong legal services.”

Already the owner and operator of 460 Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants, Flynn Restaurant Group last December acquired 368 Arby's units. The company also owns 280 Taco Bell and related Yum Brands restaurants and 135 Panera Bread bakery cafes. The food establishments operate in 33 states, generate $2.3 billion in sales and employ about 50,000 people.

Although her focus at Jones Day was intellectual property litigation, Lee also handled high-stakes, bet-the-company litigation on other matters, including business torts, computer trespass claims, breach of contract and federal and state computer access and fraud statutes, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also represented Flynn Restaurant Group as outside counsel in an arbitration case. Froyd also was a Jones Day litigator and Lee's colleague before the former went in-house at Flynn Restaurant Group in 2017.

Flynn Restaurant Group founder, chairman and CEO Greg Flynn said of her promotion in a statement: “Throughout her career and her time with Flynn Restaurant Group, Jaci has consistently demonstrated an exceptional understanding and passion for the law, and we are confident that she will continue to bring valuable knowledge and experience to our company in this new position.”

Going forward, Lee said one of her priorities for the department is to strengthen the bond between the legal department and other divisions of the company.  

“There are a lot of opportunities for us to work with other groups to determine what [legal] services would be of most use to supporting our operators,” she said. “We want to be proactive in addition to handling the litigation responsibility.”