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Hospitality Industry Law
Hospitality Industry: Comprehensive Legal Counsel for Restaurants, Hotels, Travel Companies, and Breweries
The hospitality industry is a cornerstone of global commerce, innovation, and community building. At Harris Sliwoski, we understand the unique opportunities and challenges this industry presents. Whether you’re running a local restaurant, managing an international hotel chain, expanding your travel company globally, or navigating the burgeoning brewery sector, our experienced attorneys are here to provide the strategic legal guidance you need to succeed.
Contact UsHarris Sliwoski represents restaurants, hotels, resorts, breweries, travel companies, and other hospitality businesses in the United States and internationally. We help clients start businesses, negotiate contracts, protect their brands, comply with regulations, resolve disputes, and expand into new markets.
Our hospitality practice is led by attorney Jason Adelstone, who brings two decades of firsthand experience in restaurants, bars, catering, and cafeteria services. His background also includes managing beverage and retail supply chains in Antarctica. That industry experience informs our approach to the legal and commercial problems hospitality businesses face.
A Proven Track Record of Success
Our extensive experience in the hospitality industry includes:
- Assisting a U.S. restaurant company in testing its concept in China.
- Representing one of the largest restaurant companies in the world on its China expansion plans.
- Restaurant companies entering China also need to protect their brands before committing to a location or business partner. Our China Trademark Registration Guide explains how to do that.
- Helping multiple restaurants launch operations across various U.S. cities.
- Advising hotel operators on franchise agreements, brand protection, and real estate acquisitions across North America and Europe.
- Guiding travel companies in structuring supplier agreements with global partners and ensuring compliance with international travel regulations.
- Supporting breweries in obtaining licensing, protecting their brand, and expanding their distribution networks domestically and internationally.
- Advising a client expanding a 24-hour restaurant concept into Germany, where local employment requirements made the proposed operating hours uneconomic.
- Helping a restaurant company address South Korean food regulations that required reformulation of its signature sauce before opening.
- Advising a U.S. restaurant company expanding into China when local licensing and administrative requirements made separate operating entities in multiple cities the more workable approach.
Restaurant Law: Supporting the Food and Beverage Industry
- Business Formation and Structuring: Legal entity selection, drafting operating agreements, and ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations.
- Licensing and Permits: Securing food handling permits, liquor licenses, and zoning approvals.
- Intellectual Property: Protecting restaurant names, logos, and menu designs through trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
- Real Estate and Leasing: Negotiating favorable lease terms, handling property acquisitions, and advising on zoning issues.
- Employment Law: Drafting employee handbooks, managing wage and hour compliance, and handling labor disputes. Our work also includes employment eligibility verification and I-9 compliance for restaurants and hotels
Hotel and Resort Law: Comprehensive Guidance for Accommodations
- Real Estate Development and Financing: Guiding property acquisitions, construction contracts, and financing arrangements.
- Operational Compliance: Ensuring compliance with local, state, and federal regulations, including ADA requirements and health codes.
- Liability and Risk Management: Advising on guest injury claims, data breaches, and other liability issues.
- Brand Protection: Safeguarding trademarks, trade dress, and other unique identifiers for boutique and chain hotels. We also advise on trade dress protection for hotels and restaurants, including distinctive designs and other brand-identifying features."
Restaurant and Hotel Franchise Law
Franchise agreements determine who controls the brand, the operating standards, the supply chain, customer data, and what happens when the relationship ends. Those issues matter to restaurant and hotel companies expanding through franchising and to the business owners investing in a franchise.
Harris Sliwoski advises restaurant and hotel franchisors and franchisees on domestic and international franchise arrangements. We focus on the contracts, intellectual property, regulatory requirements, and disputes that determine whether a franchise relationship works as intended.
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Franchise Development and Agreements: Structuring franchise arrangements, drafting and negotiating franchise agreements, and advising on the legal provisions in operations manuals, supplier contracts, and vendor agreements.
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Franchisees and Hotel Owners: Reviewing and negotiating franchise agreements, including fees, operating standards, territorial rights, brand requirements, renewal provisions, and termination rights. We help clients understand the financial and operational commitments they are making before they sign.
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International Franchising: Structuring master franchise and area development agreements, addressing foreign franchise disclosure requirements, protecting trademarks in foreign markets, and negotiating the allocation of control, revenue, and responsibility between franchisors and local operators.
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Franchise Disputes and Exits: Advising on franchise defaults, terminations, transfers, post-termination restrictions, de-identification requirements, trademark rights, and disputes resolved through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or litigation.
International expansion also requires choosing the right business structure. Franchising is not always the best option. Depending on the country and the company's goals, a subsidiary or joint venture sometimes makes more sense. Our guide, Taking Your Restaurant International: A Legal Guide to Global Restaurant Expansion, examines those choices and the legal issues companies should resolve before entering a foreign market.
Brewery Law: Brewing Success for Craft and Large-Scale Breweries
- Licensing and Permits: Securing state and federal brewing permits, including TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) approvals.
- Distribution Agreements: Negotiating agreements with distributors and wholesalers to expand reach.
- Intellectual Property: Protecting brewery names, beer labels, and branding elements.
- Compliance with Alcohol Laws: Ensuring compliance with state and federal regulations for production, labeling, and marketing.
- Employment Law: Advising on hiring practices, wage compliance, and workplace safety requirements.
- Distribution Agreements and Beer Franchise Laws: Drafting and negotiating brewery distribution agreements, including territory and exclusivity provisions, performance requirements, termination rights, and compliance with state beer franchise laws. We advise brewers on the restrictions that can make ending or changing a distributor relationship difficult, even when the written agreement appears to permit it.
Travel and Tourism Law: Empowering Global Travel Businesses
- Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring adherence to international travel laws, passenger rights, and consumer protection regulations.
- Supplier Agreements: Drafting and negotiating agreements with airlines, hotels, and transportation providers.
- Liability Management: Advising on risk management strategies and representing clients in customer disputes.
- Technology and Innovation: Protecting proprietary booking platforms, travel apps, and other innovations in the travel space.
Why Choose Harris Sliwoski for Your Hospitality Business?
Hospitality businesses need legal advice that takes account of how their businesses actually operate. A restaurant expanding overseas must deal with local employment laws, licensing requirements, trademarks, supplier arrangements, and sometimes franchising. Hotel owners face their own issues involving brand agreements, real estate, employment, and regulatory compliance. Our attorneys work across these areas in the United States and internationally.
Our experience includes helping restaurant companies navigate expansion challenges in Germany, South Korea, and China, advising on hotel franchise agreements, and representing hospitality businesses in commercial transactions and disputes. Attorney Jason Adelstone also brings more than two decades of firsthand experience in restaurants, bars, catering, and cafeteria services, including managing beverage and retail supply chains in Antarctica. That combination of legal and industry experience shapes how we advise our hospitality clients.
