Barclay Damon attorneys work closely with hotels, hospitality, and food service industry companies, bringing years of industry experience that draw on a number of practice areas delivered by an integrated team. The service team ensures compliance with ever-changing governmental regulations; supports revenue growth through mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and private-equity and other investments; helps strengthen and protect brands, including trademarks; assists in evaluating and designing strategies to mitigate business risks; and ensures compliance with fast-changing employment rules and regulations, including counseling on employee benefit and health care plans.
We offer multidisciplinary teams that have a depth of knowledge on legal issues specific to the hotels, hospitality, and food service industry, and, when necessary, our attorneys provide representation before applicable agencies and regulatory boards and in federal, state, and local trial and appellate courts.
Barclay Damon provides industry-experienced counsel on issues that include:
- Acquisitions, including joint ventures; purchases and sales; acquisition of real estate, including like-kind exchanges; and naming and sponsorship rights
- Financing, including both conventional and private financing; the use and optimization of tax credits; and grants and other government incentives
- Real estate, including leases, municipal compliance and approvals, and landlord-tenant dispute resolution
- Licensing and franchising, including brand protection, contracts and franchise agreements, dispute resolution, intellectual property optimization, media law, trademark rights and infringement, and trade-secret protection
- Liquor-license laws and regulations, including acquisition and transfer of licenses, advertising and promotional compliance, distribution, and production
- Labor and employment, including handling discrimination claims, EEO, fair-hiring practices, and union issues; employee-handbook development and review; ERISA issues; executive and employee contracts; human-resources management tools; OSHA issues; wage-and-hour issues; and covenants not to compete and confidentiality agreements
- Construction, including contract negotiations; environmental impact studies; joint bids; new builds, renovations, and tear-downs; relocation and expansion; required product improvement programs; and litigation, including mediation and arbitration
- Technology, including breach mitigation and litigation, cybersecurity, and mobile-transaction liability
- Personal injury and products-liability defense, including onsite safety issues, product development and regulatory compliance, and use and labeling matters
Clients in these industries include:
- Food service: Agribusiness and farms; alcoholic-beverage manufacturers, including breweries, distilleries, and vineyards; bars; company-owned, company-operated, and franchise restaurants; convenience stores; food and beverage distributors; grocery stores; importers and exporters; liquor stores; and packaged-food producers and co-packers
- Hospitality: Concert promoters; country clubs; entertainment venues; event planners; golf courses; recreational, travel, and tourism sites; resorts; sports arenas; theme parks; timeshare and fractional-ownership property management firms; and tour organizers
- Lodging: Bed-and-breakfasts; hostels; local and national hotels, inns, and motels; and online private-accommodation aggregators
- Not-for-profit corporations: Colleges and universities and their associated entities and industry trade associations