John Doroghazi

Practice Areas

John is a Partner in the Litigation Department. He focuses his practice on franchise, complex commercial, and class action disputes. Although he relishes trial work, his first concern is cost-effectively securing the ideal business solution for his client.

He has served as lead litigator for one of the nation’s leading franchisors and has successfully defended that client and others in a variety of high-stakes franchise-related litigation brought by current and former franchisees, consumers, vendors, and area representatives. John’s extensive trial and arbitration experience includes being part of a trial team that successfully defended a major franchisor in arbitrations related to a multimillion-dollar contract dispute; successfully obtaining dismissal of a RICO class action brought by a putative class of franchisees against the former owner of a franchise system; and defeating a motion for preliminary injunction brought on behalf of over a hundred franchisees.

John also routinely represents clients in complex commercial and business litigation. His experience includes first chairing an international arbitration regarding patent rights granted under a settlement agreement, successfully defending a medical device manufacturer in a lawsuit alleging breach of a settlement agreement and violation of the Lanham Act, successfully representing a refrigerant gas company in a multi-million dollar dispute over a post-purchase net working capital adjustment, representing a municipality in environmental litigation, successfully defending a publisher in a defamation suit brought after it published a negative book review, and defending a company and its founder from a buyer’s post-sale fraud claims.

John has an active practice defending insurance companies, hospitals, banks, franchisors, and financial service companies from both nationwide and state-specific consumer class actions, including under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Among other things, John has served as lead counsel in a series of nationwide class actions brought against a franchisor for its marketing practices.

For a number of years, Chambers USA has recognized John in its Franchise Law – Nationwide category, where clients have praised him as “a smart and results-orientated attorney,” who is “incredibly articulate, extremely responsive and attentive to client needs.” He has been selected by the Franchise Times as a “Legal Eagle.” Outside the franchise context, since 2018, he has been named a Connecticut “Future Star” and its Northeast region “40 & Under Hot List” by Benchmark Litigation.

John writes and speaks extensively on a variety of topics, including franchise and consumer class action issues. He is the current Editor-in-Chief of the Franchise Law Journal and has co-authored the Connecticut chapter of the Franchise Desk Book.

John is the immediate-past Chair of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Franchise and Dealership section.

John received his J.D. magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, where he was an articles editor at the Washington University Law Review. After law school, he was a clerk to the Honorable Jean C. Hamilton, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. John received his degree magna cum laude in English and History from Boston College.

John serves on the board of New Haven Legal Aid and is a member of the committee overseeing the Wiggin Opportunity Initiative. John has represented clients in a number of pro bono matters, such as representing a client seeking damages for wrongfully spending months in jail after being falsely accused of participating in a robbery-murder, protecting Native American prisoners’ religious rights, recovering security deposits for low-income renters, and returning children to parents in cross-border custody disputes.