service minded

Overview

Dorsey’s Hospitality Industry Group is a trusted advisor to industry sectors including hotels, resorts, golf clubs, restaurants, and other leisure-focused enterprises. Participants we serve include owners, developers, private equity sponsors, and other investors and institutions on the full spectrum of legal and business issues that shape the hospitality industry. We combine deep industry knowledge with a multidisciplinary platform on sophisticated matters spanning the lifecycle of hospitality assets—from development and financing through operations, repositioning, and disposition. Our team is staffed to efficiently handle everything from single asset issues to large portfolio transactions

Areas of Service

Our team provides industry-specific knowledge and advice on a wide range of activities including:

• Real Estate. We counsel clients across the full spectrum of hotel and resort real estate transactions including acquisitions, dispositions, and ground-up development. Our attorneys understand the interplay between operating businesses and underlying real estate, delivering commercially focused solutions that address the interests of owners, operators, and capital partners throughout the asset lifecycle. Our representation includes negotiation of property improvement plans (PIPs), capital expenditure obligations, sale-leaseback transactions, and ground lease structuring.
• Finance. We advise on the full range of debt and equity financing structures, including senior secured, mezzanine, preferred equity, construction, and CMBS financing. We counsel clients on private equity investments and fund formation, and represent lenders and borrowers in loan workouts, restructurings, and distressed asset strategies.
• Corporate. We advise owners, operators, investors, and brands on hotel management and franchise agreements, licensing arrangements, vendor contracts, joint ventures, and other operating agreements, as well as mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, entity formation, and co-investment structuring for family offices and institutional investors.
• Construction. We represent hospitality clients in the negotiation of construction, architect, and design professional agreements across new development and renovation projects, and provide experienced counsel in construction-related disputes, including delay claims, defect litigation, mechanic’s lien proceedings, and surety bond matters.
• Tax. We provide domestic and cross-border tax structuring and planning advice, including entity selection, acquisition structuring, REIT qualification and compliance, opportunity zone transactions, and the international tax dimensions of inbound and outbound hotel and resort investment.
• Regulatory. We guide clients through federal, state, and local regulatory requirements affecting hotel and resort operations, including liquor and food and beverage licensing, ADA compliance, zoning and land use entitlements, environmental permitting, health and safety compliance, short-term rental regulation, and gaming licensing where applicable.
• Cybersecurity & Data Privacy. We counsel clients on data privacy and cybersecurity program development, PCI-DSS compliance, biometric data obligations, cross-border data transfer frameworks, and vendor management. When incidents arise, we provide experienced representation in breach response, regulatory investigations, and related litigation.
• Intellectual Property. We provide comprehensive brand protection counsel, including trademark clearance, registration, enforcement, and portfolio management across domestic and international markets. Our representation extends to trade dress protection, domain name disputes, licensing arrangements, and technology agreements involving proprietary hotel management systems.
• Labor & Employment. We counsel hospitality employers on organized labor relations, collective bargaining, wage and hour compliance, employee classification, tip pooling and gratuity obligations, immigration and work authorization, executive employment agreements, OSHA compliance, and the resolution of employment disputes before agencies and in litigation.
• Disputes. We represent hospitality clients in litigation, arbitration, and mediation across the matters most consequential to the industry, including management agreement and franchise disputes, construction claims, financing and real estate litigation, insurance coverage and business interruption claims, ADA accessibility litigation, and cross-border arbitration involving international brands and operators.