About

Something of an outlier in this list, Mitchell Lowe is, strictly speaking, not a legal counsel. Since 2015 he has served as president at Sizzling Platter, the US franchise operator behind well-known brands including Detroit-based Little Caesars Pizza and global donut and coffee franchise Dunkin’ Donuts. Between 2006 and 2015 Lowe served as Sizzling Platter’s general counsel and continues to oversee much of the company’s legal work, including supervising two lawyers based in Mexico. He has also played a big role in helping the company expand across Latin America recently, working on a number of acquisitions, negotiations and financings across the region, including deals to expand the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise in Mexico and, more recently, helping Little Caesars open its first restaurant in Chile. Nominators praised Lowe as ‘a very sharp negotiator’ with ‘a remarkable ability to zero in on key issues and articulate them in a manner which allows all parties to find common ground’. Another spoke of his ‘fundamentally un-lawyerly approach to negotiations, which sets him apart from all other lawyers in the room and gives him a big advantage when it comes to finding a breakthrough.’ Prior to joining Sizzling Platter, Lowe was a litigation associate in the San Francisco office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.