Hospitality

Williams Mullen has developed significant experience over the years providing sophisticated legal services to clients in the hospitality industry. Our dedicated Hospitality Industry Service Group represents public and private companies, both in the U.S. and abroad, who develop, own and operate resorts, hotels, time-share properties, water parks and conference facilities. We know that direct, specialized experience counts when it comes to partnering with hospitality clients.

These companies have long relied on Williams Mullen to provide comprehensive legal services that cover land acquisition, finance and development, timeshare, fractional ownership, condominium documentation, state registration, and receivables hypothecations and securitizations. We also provide strategic counsel on key business issues such as litigation; labor, employment and immigration; sales and marketing; teleservices compliance; intellectual property; franchising; and expansion. Serving as a long-term partner, we help hotel, resort and other hospitality property owners and developers reach their business goals.

Our Hospitality Group routinely provides a full suite of legal services, including:

General Business, Mergers & Acquisitions and Governance

• Purchasing and selling hotels.
• Refinancing mortgage loans.
• Assisting with loan workouts.
• Providing bankruptcy advice to single-purpose partnerships that own hotels.
• Negotiating parking agreements and easements for hotels.
• Preparing securities offerings for hotel investment funds.
• Preparing facility operating agreements for public conference centers.
• Negotiating public-private partnerships between hotel companies and municipalities.
• Preparing hotel management agreements.
• Negotiating booking policy for exhibition and conference centers.
• Advising on time-share registration requirements.
• Preparing benefit plans for hotel and time-share clients.

Regulatory Compliance

• Advising on worksite enforcement and immigration compliance.
• Advising hotel owners and lenders about receivership laws.
• Assisting with ABC licenses.

Litigation

• Defending against condemnation of hotel facilities.
• Defending against employment litigation by employees of hotel management company.
• Advising on contest/sweepstakes law.
• Advising on coupon/gift certificate law.
• Defending hospitality industry in premises liability, personal injury and general liability claims.
• Litigating landlord/tenant issues including eviction matters.
• Counseling on various wage/hour and harassment claims.
• Representing hospitality industry in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charges involving race, sex and age discrimination.
• Advising on Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) claims and various U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) wage and hour audits.

In addition to our substantive experience, hospitality clients also benefit from our established relationships with respected industry professionals such as consulting engineers, appraisers, investors and lenders. For new developments, this often translates into shorter site development timelines, fewer design-build obstacles, and more fluid openings. For existing developments, this means we can ease the process for owners seeking financing to expand or refurbish their properties.

Attorneys in the firm’s Hospitality Industry Group are active in industry trade associations and are consistently called upon to speak at conferences for organizations such as the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), the Virginia Resort Development Association (VRDA) and the Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals Association (HFTP).