Recent News:
Ashley Gomez-Rodon, an associate in the firm’s Commercial Litigation Department, has been selected as a Florida Legal Awards honoree in the On the Rise category.
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Cozen O’Connor has a multidisciplinary team of attorneys and government relations professionals with deep hospitality experience. Our skill, collective experience, and knowledge have made us an industry leader. We counsel many of the world’s leading and most recognizable hospitality companies, including leading brands, owners, operators, and developers, in an increasingly challenging legal, regulatory, and business environment.
We represent hotels, resorts, casinos, restaurants, food and beverage companies, conference centers, golf clubs, spas, marinas, sports venues, delivery services, franchised properties, and other hospitality-related businesses. Our hospitality clients range from small family-owned and franchised properties to national hotel and restaurant chains to large-scale luxury brands.
Our lawyers help clients address their most critical issues, anticipate areas of emerging risk, and ensure they are well-positioned to meet — and exceed — their business objectives. They have been recognized for their thought leadership and client service by Chambers USA, Martindale-Hubbell, Best Lawyers in America, The American Lawyer, and Super Lawyers, among others. Our team has partnered with industry associations, including the National Restaurant Association, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and various state restaurant, lodging, and travel associations.
Capabilities
Commercial Litigation. Cozen O’Connor’s Commercial Litigation practice represents hospitality clients in a wide range of disputes in state and federal courts across the country. We serve as national litigation counsel for some of the largest hospitality brands. We served as lead counsel in two of the largest claimed Legionella outbreaks in hotels in recent years, and we have defended some of the largest brands in the industry in a range of cases involving data breach, resort fee litigation, foodborne illness, ADA claims, dram shop laws, gaming, human trafficking, personal injury/tort, and terror attacks on international hotels. We have secured defense verdicts for hotel owners and operators in numerous state and federal court proceedings involving a variety of challenging civil lawsuits. We represent hospitality companies in business disputes in courts and commercial arbitration proceedings in the United States and abroad. Our lawyers have repeatedly defeated litigation initiated by forum-shopping plaintiffs who improperly sue large, international brands in U.S. courts for incidents alleged to have occurred abroad.
Corporate. Our Corporate practice regularly handles the acquisition, development, and financing of hospitality-related businesses. Our lawyers negotiate asset and stock sales and purchases, mergers and consolidations, spin-offs and roll-ups, and all types of joint ventures and strategic alliances. We regularly guide clients through debt and equity financing issues, including recapitalizations. Our priority is to develop a thorough knowledge of the client’s business, the marketplace in which it competes, and its long-term goals. With an understanding of the client’s operations, we are then able to craft tailored approaches that satisfy the company’s immediate tactical needs and further the overall mission.
Labor and Employment/Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation. Cozen O’Connor’s full-service Labor & Employment Practice has been representing hospitality industry clients for decades. We understand the significant challenges hospitality clients face given the dynamic litigation and regulatory landscape. Whether a client requires help ensuring compliance with state and federal wage and hour regulations, defending an employment discrimination claim, addressing an immigration issue, negotiating a collective bargaining agreement, or handling a strike, our experienced labor and employment attorneys provide skilled representation and strategic and practical advice. In addition, we offer a dedicated Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice. On the employee benefits side, we provide guidance regarding retirement and health and welfare plans; counsel clients on the benefits implications of business transactions; and advise on fiduciary responsibilities, plan terminations, and withdrawals. On the executive compensation side, we negotiate sophisticated contracts that include proper protections and desirable incentives for both executives and employers.
Real Estate. Members of our Real Estate Practice regularly represent hospitality clients in their most critical real estate transactions and have experience with the full range of hospitality assets, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, spas, conference centers, and sports venues. We handle the acquisition and disposition of vacant and developed land; advise on land use, zoning, and approvals; and assist with all development and construction-related agreements. Attorneys lead the drafting and negotiation of joint ventures; financing and refinancing of hospitality assets; and negotiation and drafting of highly sophisticated leasing, management, and franchise agreements. The firm’s Distressed Real Estate team can design tailored solutions to protect rights and stabilize finances, whether the distress is due to project-specific difficulties or market-wide disruptions. All of our real estate work relies on a deep understanding of hospitality clients’ unique operational norms, competitive landscapes, and the need for long-term agreements that support growth and predictability while still allow for constant innovation in response to consumer trends and preferences.
Intellectual Property & Trademark. Brand protection is of paramount importance in the hospitality industry, and Cozen O’Connor’s full-service Intellectual Property Practice will serve as your front line in the acquisition, management, and protection of intellectual property. We work in the areas of trademark, trade dress, domain name, copyright, and patent — and regularly counsel on procurement, prosecution, enforcement, asset management, monetization, licensing, and litigation. We advise clients on clearance, registration, ownership, renewal, and termination rights; secure valuable brands and trademarks; develop acquisition, sales, and licensing strategies; and enforce and defend clients’ IP rights.
Public Strategies. Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies is a bipartisan lobbying firm that offers comprehensive government solutions at the federal, state, and local levels. Our team of experienced advocates provides clients with the clarity and access necessary to effectively engage with modern political institutions. We assist clients with federal lobbying, state and local lobbying, policy monitoring and analysis, political visibility and crisis management, and the government contracting process. We have substantial hospitality industry experience, and represent national associations and companies of all sizes.
State Attorneys General. Cozen O’Connor was one of the first firms to establish a dedicated State Attorneys General (AG) Practice. We represent clients in AG investigations and litigation, and counsel clients on state AG matters. Our attorneys work at the cutting edge of issues of critical importance to AGs, including antitrust, cybersecurity, data privacy, consumer protection, the environment, and labor laws. We have significant hospitality experience, having represented some of the industry’s major players. We help companies analyze and interpret AGs’ interests and understand how those interests inform their enforcement and policy priorities. We actively engage in dialogue with AG offices and regularly attend AG events and meetings to advocate on our clients’ behalf. Our team is nationally recognized for our deep understanding of how every AG office operates and our relationships in the AG community.
Class Action Litigation. Our Class Actions Practice represents hospitality companies in class actions and complex litigation matters in federal and state courts across the country. We defend businesses against claims challenging resort fees, advertising/marketing practices, customer communications, text messaging, website and mobile app accessibility, menu listings, pricing and promotions, fee disclosures, gift cards, and consumer privacy issues. We advise clients on practical strategies to mitigate the risk of class action exposure and craft, revise, and enforce consumer-facing terms, arbitration agreements and privacy policies. Our Class Actions Group has briefed key litigation issues in the courts, including in the U.S. Supreme Court, on behalf of industry associations including the National Retail Federation, Restaurant Law Center/National Restaurant Association, and Retail Litigation Center, and before regulatory bodies on behalf of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. We have successfully defended against potentially damaging claims stemming from alleged false advertising. We regularly defend companies in actions in state and federal courts across the country that challenge practices related to advertising, marketing, and promotional activities. Our class actions group has been identified as the “go to” team for consumer class action defense by the Retail Litigation Center.
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