Simon Obrien

About Simon Obrien

Accomplished legal executive with almost 15 years driving business growth through strategic counsel. Currently VP of Legal Affairs at Hissho Sushi, leading a 7-person legal team supporting internal operations and nearly franchise locations nationwide.Core expertise includes building scalable legal frameworks, structuring complex M&A and commercial real estate transactions, and ensuring enterprise risk management. My deep legal knowledge, leadership and soft skills, and business acumen developed through Harvard Business School executive education enable me to deliver practical solutions that accelerate business objectives. Whether advising on strategic initiatives, navigating regulatory challenges, or developing operational processes, I focus on clear, actionable counsel that moves the business forward efficiently while maintaining an understanding that a certain amount of business risk is where companies will thrive financially. I believe that it is important for a company to sometimes live in the gray area, and that a successful legal partner should be able to not only identify risk, but to translate complex legal issues into business-friendly solutions that inform leadership and protect the company while enabling growth across diverse industry verticals.

Experience

1. VP of Legal Affairs

   Hissho Sushi Inc

   Apr 2025 — Present · Charlotte, NC, US

   My role centers on enabling strategic growth across our nearly franchise locations while managing the complex legal landscape of food service franchising. Daily responsibilities span franchise compliance and FDD management, negotiating multi-party agreements with franchisees and host partners (supermarkets, hospitals, universities), and proactively managing risks inherent in our franchise model.I oversee regulatory compliance across franchising (FTC/state), employment, immigration, and privacy laws, translating evolving requirements into practical policies that protect our four key stakeholders: personnel, franchisees, host partners, and consumers. This includes managing our trademark portfolio, supporting M&A transactions and new vertical expansions, and advising leadership on calculated risk-taking that aligns with our growth strategy, and playing a pivotal role on our food safety and ERM teams.Internally, I lead a 7-person legal team focused on reducing outside counsel dependency while expanding in-house capabilities. I streamline workflows to make legally-complex issues approachable for business teams, ensuring our legal operations support rather than hinder our growth trajectory. My approach balances protection with opportunity - recognizing that strategic risk tolerance is often necessary to maintain our competitive advantage.The role requires constant pivoting between immediate franchise matters, strategic partnership structuring, regulatory compliance programs, and long-term initiatives like system automation and enterprise risk management that scale with our expanding footprint across diverse foodservice environments.

Education

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  Bachelor of Arts, Political Science and History with Honors

  2005 — 2009

• Harvard University

  CORe Credential of Readiness, Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting

  2019 — 2019

• Elon University School of Law

  Juris Doctor, Law

• Harvard University

  Program on Negotiation, Negotiation and Leadership

  2018 — 2018

Skills

• Legal Research
• Westlaw
• Legal Writing
• Hearings
• Legal Assistance
• Microsoft Word
• Social Media Marketing
• Statistical Data Analysis
• Data Mining
• Digital Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Business Development
• Relationship Management
• Public Relations
• Public Speaking
• Community Outreach
• Strategic Communications
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft Excel
• Twitter
• Social Networking
• Blogging
• Networking
• Courts
• Research
• Civil Litigation
• Trials
• Litigation
• Social Media