What We Do
Everything a hotel or restaurant needs from a law firm, in one place.
Six practice areas, one client team. A licensing matter and a lease negotiation for the same venue get handled by attorneys who already talk to each other.
Licensing & Regulatory
Liquor licenses · Health & safety · Local ordinances
A liquor license renewal that stalls at the city desk can shut down a bar’s busiest weekend. We handle applications, renewals, transfers, and hearings before licensing boards and local regulators, and we get in front of objections before they turn into a denial.
Most of this work happens before a client ever sees a problem: pre-opening license strategy, compliance audits ahead of an inspection, and defense when a violation notice does arrive.
Finance & Development
Acquisitions · Construction loans · Repositioning
From site selection to opening night, we structure and close the deals that get a hotel or restaurant built. That includes acquisition financing, construction loans, joint-venture agreements, and the ground lease that sits underneath the project.
When a property runs into trouble — a loan default, a failed operator, a distressed sale — we’ve handled the repositioning work that gets it back to a paying asset.
Employment & Labor
Wage & hour · Tip pooling · Staffing disputes
Hospitality runs on a workforce that turns over fast, works split shifts, and often earns tips on top of a base wage. Those three facts cause most of the employment claims a venue will ever see, and we build our advice around them.
We write handbooks and tip-pooling policies that hold up under audit, and we defend wage-and-hour claims, staffing disputes, and discrimination charges when they land.
Litigation & Disputes
Contract disputes · Premises liability · Arbitration
A slip-and-fall claim, a vendor contract gone wrong, a dispute with a co-owner — hospitality generates a steady stream of conflict, and most of it never needs to reach a courtroom. We settle what can be settled and try what can’t.
We already know the operating side of a venue, and that lets us put a dispute in context a generalist litigator would miss: how a kitchen actually runs, what a management agreement is supposed to do, why a guest complaint escalated the way it did.
Trademark & Brand
Trademark filing · Brand agreements · Franchise filings
A restaurant’s name and look are worth protecting the day it opens, not after a competitor copies them. We register and defend trademarks, draft licensing and brand agreements, and prepare franchise filings for operators ready to expand.
For groups building a multi-location brand, we set up the agreements between the company and each location before disputes have a reason to start.
Franchise & Management
Franchisor counsel · Franchisee representation · Management contracts
We represent both sides of the franchise relationship — brands building a franchise system and operators buying into one — and we draft and negotiate the management contracts that sit between an owner and an operating company.
Clients bring us in early, before a franchise agreement or management contract is signed, so the terms match how the business will actually run.
Get In Touch
Not sure which area fits your matter?
Tell us what’s going on and we’ll route it to the right principal — most matters touch more than one practice area anyway.