How to Use Legal Counsel When Expanding Internationally
International restaurant expansion is a high-stakes leap that will put every part of your business to the test: operations, supply chains, culture, finance, intellectual property, and above all, the law.
It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of new markets and emerging culinary scenes, but international expansion is not just about translating your restaurant’s brand into a new language or replicating your menu abroad. It’s about navigating an entirely different legal and regulatory ecosystem, mitigating risk, structuring your venture for resilience, and protecting your brand across borders.
Our law firm works with restaurants and hospitality groups at every stage of international expansion. We understand the unique challenges that come with taking a U.S.-based concept overseas–because we do it constantly. Our legal team brings decades of experience in cross-border business development, regulatory compliance, international IP protection, and foreign market entry to every project we take on. We don’t just react to legal problems—we help our clients anticipate them and design around them.
This blog series has explained what global restaurant expansion truly requires, weaving in operational and strategic considerations that must align with your legal framework. In the first five parts of this series, we focused on the following:
Part 1: Legal Considerations for Structuring Your Restaurant Abroad
Part 2: Navigating Regulatory, Licensing, and Financial Requirements
Part 3: Employment, Data Privacy and Consumer Protection
Part 4: Intellectual Property Considerations
Part 5: Real World Nuances in Law and Application
In this final installment, we turn to the linchpin of it all: how to use legal counsel when taking your restaurant internationally. The challenges explored in earlier parts—complex regulations, hidden fees, cultural landmines, and IP risks—all underscore the essential role your legal team plays.
Your Legal Partner for Global Restaurant Expansion
Your international legal counsel should function as your strategic partner from the outset—guiding the structure of your entry, managing cross-border legal complexities, and ensuring your business objectives align with jurisdictional realities. The right international legal strategy can prevent costly delays, accelerate approvals, and significantly reduce long-term exposure and liabilities.
In countries where we have attorneys on the ground—such as Australia, Mexico, Portugal, and Spain—we manage the entire international expansion process internally. This provides clients with a streamlined experience: direct communication, consistent legal strategy, and integrated support across entity formation, licensing, employment, intellectual property (IP), and dispute resolution.
Clients benefit from one point of contact, unified legal oversight, and the ability to move quickly without navigating a patchwork of outside firms. This model is ideal for seamless cross-border compliance and brand integration.
Hybrid Jurisdictions
In countries where we have deep experience but no permanent office, we lead the overall legal strategy while working closely with trusted local counsel on jurisdiction-specific matters, such as real estate transactions, nuanced labor laws, or municipal permitting. In these cases, we serve two critical roles:
- Translating your business goals into precise legal directives for local counsel
- Assessing the feasibility of those goals under local law and regulations
Our legal team bridges your operational vision with the legal realities on the ground—ensuring consistency, clarity, and speed in your global hospitality ventures.
New or Less Familiar Jurisdictions
In jurisdictions that are new or evolving, we partner early with carefully vetted local firms. While local counsel handles jurisdiction-specific matters, we remain your strategic lead, providing continuity, accountability, and alignment with your larger global objectives. This model ensures your international expansion stays on track, legally sound, and commercially viable—even in the most complex markets.
The Value of Local Insight: A Real-World Example
We once advised a client planning to open a restaurant in a notoriously difficult city within a particularly challenging country. Our trusted local contacts—deeply familiar with the region’s power dynamics—recommended the client “make friends with a key local figure” by making a substantial donation to that individual’s favored charity: a children’s hospital.
Before proceeding, we consulted one of the nation’s foremost experts on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), who confirmed that the donation would be fully compliant with U.S. anti-corruption laws.
The client followed the recommendation. The local power player attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the restaurant’s market entry proceeded with unexpected ease.
This entirely lawful donation saved our client significant time, frustration, and cost—demonstrating how thoughtful legal guidance can navigate both formal regulations and informal realities. It’s also a reminder that effective legal strategy doesn’t stop at black-letter law. It often requires local insight, cultural fluency, and coordinated legal counsel to succeed—while staying firmly within the bounds of both U.S. and local laws.
Choosing the Right Legal Partner for International Restaurant Expansion
The right legal partner for your international restaurant expansion is not just a domestic lawyer or a local lawyer abroad—it’s a team that understands both, and it should:
- Have direct, proven experience with restaurant and hospitality expansion.
- Understand the legal landscape of your target jurisdiction or be part of a trusted global legal network.
- Bridge U.S. business expectations with foreign regulatory environments and cultural norms.
- Deliver cost-effective, scalable support across multiple international markets.
- Offer strategic guidance on complex issues like international franchising and global IP protection.
At Harris Sliwoski, we’re vetted members of several of the leading global law alliances. This means that we can assemble the right team for any jurisdiction—quickly and efficiently—without compromising quality. Our clients don’t have to choose between local expertise and U.S.-based coordination. We deliver both, seamlessly.
Conclusion
Your international restaurant expansion ultimately depends on three pillars: a strong brand and operations, effective navigation of foreign legal systems, and robust protection of your intellectual property across borders.
The legal complexities we’ve explored throughout this series—from entity structuring to employment law, from IP protection to cultural nuances—underscore why strategic legal guidance is essential from day one. The right legal partnership can mean the difference between costly missteps and smooth market entry.
Let us be your first call when going international. It might be the most valuable ingredient in your expansion recipe.
