Unlike every industry, the world of hospitality changes endlessly. As global commerce and new technologies make travel and leisure more accessible to people around the world, the industry is growing and expanding in new ways. Forward-thinking hospitality industry companies should always be aware of the leading industry legal trends, risks and opportunities so they can ensure their own businesses stay competitive and relevant. Befitting its client base in the heart of one of the most frequented tourist destinations in the world, Jimerson Birr has extensive experience representing companies of the region’s hospitality industry, including prominent hotels and resorts, bed and breakfasts, timeshares and vacation clubs, country clubs, bars, restaurants, catering companies, movie theaters, gambling and gaming sector companies, health clubs, major event hosting and production companies, agencies and tour operators, and a variety of entertainment venues.
Jimerson Birr’s Hospitality Industry Team provides advocacy, information, resources, and education for operators and professionals in nearly every type of hospitality industry business on a nationwide basis. Our team considers your business needs, wants and goals, then outlines our strategy to support those goals. The results-oriented solutions are tailored to the hospitality industry, your particular sector, your company, and you as an individual client point of contact. When Jimerson Birr provides answers to a problem, it comes from a legal knowledge base spanning many legal disciplines and many business trades. Our relationship with your company will endure throughout the business life cycle. We help startups get organized and funded, and grow with your company as it manages, transacts or faces a legal dispute. Our service style and offerings are scalable, end-to-end legal solutions that other options can’t match.
Jimerson Birr’s attorneys act as business advisors and general counsel to assist hospitality clients with day-to-day operations and decisions. We have experience advising hotels, resorts, casinos, restauranteurs and other hospitality businesses on management and employee contracts, vendor and supplier negotiations and agreements, branding and intellectual property matters, rewards and loyalty programs and revenue growth strategies.
For projects of any economic, geographic or complexity magnitude, Jimerson Birr’s Hospitality Industry Team serves clients throughout the entire real estate cycle from debt and equity financing and refinancing to entitling, acquiring and selling, developing, operating/managing, and leasing.
In this litigious world we live in, employee management programs need to be settled, lawful, and defensible. Every year at industry conferences, executive management personnel recognize employment and employee benefits issues among their top anxieties in risk management and liability exposure. Beyond pecuniary exposure, failure to identify and treat employee management issues can cause cultural disruption and resource abuse. Jimerson Birr attorneys work concertedly with hospitality industry companies to spot problems, solve problems and prevent problems.
We counsel hospitality industry companies as they create, implement, monitor and improve human resources game plans in an industry comprised of increasing pressures and regulations. Our team is well equipped to advise management and human resources professionals on personnel related decisions, deliver applied management training, and support the implementation of employee handbooks, other policies and procedures, and affirmative action and EEO plans. Our lawyers regularly defend wrongful and retaliatory discharge claims and race, age, gender, and disability discrimination claims at the administrative level and in state and federal courts. We assist employers with OSHA investigations and citations, Department of Labor audits, and wage claims under state and federal wage and hour laws. Without understanding how to legally acquire, compensate, manage and retain talent, top-line hospitality industry strategies to expand or focus products and services become bottom-line plans of mere survival.
When financial or operational challenges arise, the negotiating skills and creative problem-solving talents of Jimerson Birr attorneys can often alleviate or eliminate difficulties for imperiled or undercapitalized hospitality industry clients. We advise clients on debt restructuring alternatives in a variety of credit structures, including secured and unsecured loan facilities, letter of credit facilities, privately placed notes, and lease financing facilities. Our lawyers will always look for an out-of-court restructure or liquidation opportunity that has the potential of achieving higher returns at a lower cost for all stakeholders. If a bankruptcy filing is in play, we have the experience required to help our clients successfully see the process through, whether they are debtors or creditors. Our extensive trial experience and willingness to litigate enhances our ability to negotiate effective solutions. We are experienced in all aspects of bankruptcy litigation and have successfully litigated, among other matters, contested confirmation hearings, discharge contests, validation disputes, fraudulent or preferential transfer proceedings, claims objections, stay relief hearings, and involuntary bankruptcies.
Jimerson Birr’s attorneys are driven by the viewpoint that helping hospitality industry clients structure their operations to avoid disputes is the best way to help their business keep running well and profitably. But, even a great plan can result in inevitable business disputes. When such disputes arise, we seek to bring about swift and favorable resolution for our clients. Jimerson Birr has participated in hospitality industry related litigation at the local, state and federal levels. We also encourage the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques, such as mediation and arbitration, when they are appropriate to our clients’ interests and may result in a more timely and economical disposition.
Ultimately, no matter what service we are providing to our hospitality industry clients, we have the same lodestar: to free our valued clients from their legal concerns, risks and drudgeries, so they can focus on service to their customers. Their next customer will always be their biggest opportunity, and nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.
Jimerson Birr recognizes that companies in the risky, complex, and fast-paced hospitality sector depend on sound counsel for mission-critical operational, legal and regulatory issues. We are committed to the goal of helping hospitality executives mitigate risk and prevent problems before they arise or escalate.