To the extent that every industry has its own unique opportunities, trends and regulatory issues, attorneys at Flaster/Greenberg bring skills, knowledge and collective experience to the table when providing legal services for clients in the restaurant/hospitality industry. Such clients include individual restaurateurs and franchisers, early-stage restaurant companies, restaurant chains, packaged food companies, licensors, hoteliers, food manufacturers and wholesalers. Our menu of services covers a full range of practice areas in laws specific to business and corporate, real estate, labor and employment, litigation, environmental and intellectual property. We are well equipped to handle issues that involve government regulation, zoning, licensing, environmental and contract disputes.
We identify problems and opportunities particular to the restaurant/hospitality industry and provide the perspective needed with regard to:
- Start-up funding and organizational matters;
- Corporate finance issues;
- Purchase and sale of restaurant assets;
- Licensing and franchising;
- Employee benefit representation;
- Litigation services, including the defense of wage and hour suits;
- Union organizing campaigns, harassment training, and general labor relations and employment advice;
- Alcoholic beverage compliance and regulatory issues;
- Alcohol and beer-to-go license applications;
- Intellectual property issues involving trademarks and trademark litigation;
- Real estate, including leasing, zoning, and the definition and resolution of land use issues for restaurant clients;
- Negotiations with state taxing authorities over payment of state excise taxes and representation in tax disputes with the IRS and state tax authorities;
- Negotiating and drafting buy-sell agreements with a focus on tax consequences
Business and Corporate
Our corporate attorneys have been actively involved in the formation, financing, development, and expansion of a number of restaurants and chains, providing a wide range of legal services that include acquisitions and dispositions of existing restaurants, as well as structured and negotiated complex joint venture and other partnering arrangements involving restaurants and hotels.
Real Estate
Location is one of the most significant factors in the success of any restaurant or hospitality business. Selecting locations for a proper site or expansion with visibility and easy access means working with clients on developing a set of site selection criteria. Considerations additional to costs may include destination concepts driven by demographics and access or locations where impulse dining is high due to the volume of pedestrian traffic. Whether the location selected is in a shopping mall, urban shopping area, strip center or freestanding location, we work with restaurateurs and hoteliers in handling all legal aspects of the construction phase, including negotiation and drafting of contracts. We continue to provide guidance in seeing that all legal needs are met prior to acquisition and throughout ownership in the business. Other aspects include the land use and zoning process (including alcoholic beverage permitting), environmental issues, and letters of intent, contracts, cross easements, acquisition documents, leases and signage.
Labor and Employment
Attracting, training, and retaining key personnel is crucial to success and growth for restaurateurs and hospitality entrepreneurs. As finding management and employee candidates can be difficult, our attorneys help to develop programs to encourage management personnel to make the correct decisions concerning the treatment of employees from a legal perspective. We provide counseling on labor relations and employment law issues, including wage and hour compliance; hiring and firing; and compliance with federal and state antidiscrimination laws. Our on-site training programs for managers and supervisors cover appropriate interview techniques, employee reviews, and disciplinary procedures.
In developing policies and employment manuals for our clients, we have experience in the structuring and enforcement of non-competition and confidentiality agreements, the development and implementation of stock option and other equity and non-equity incentive programs.
Litigation -
Our number one goal for our clients is preventive actions that avoid disputes, which can have a costly and time consuming impact on business. Despite the best intentions, disputes arise that can be resolved only through the intervention of the courts or other third-party dispute resolution processes. Whether you are faced with an E-coli claim, wage and hour claim, sexual harassment charge, or shareholder/partner dispute, our litigators have the experience necessary to resolve these matters efficiently and effectively. We understand the risks and costs associated with litigation and seek to minimize the collateral effects on restaurateurs and hoteliers while vigorously protecting and advancing their interests. Our litigators are trial attorneys that represent companies in all types and sizes of commercial disputes, including complaints lodged by state agencies and consumers, discrimination claims, wage and hour collective actions, franchisor/franchisee disputes, fit-outs by contractors, leases for restaurant premises, municipal tax and service fee liens, and negotiation and drafting of contracts.
Intellectual Property
Our Restaurant/Hospitality team includes attorneys who provide consultation in the selection, clearance and registration of trademarks, trade names, trade dress and service marks, preparing applications with state agencies and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They represent clients in litigation involving infringements of trademark, trade name, trade dress and service marks in cases before state and federal courts, as well as representation in governmental proceedings such as opposition, cancellation and domain name disputes and in appeals to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and other appellate courts.