Wooden McLaughlin attorneys have experience handling a variety legal matters that impact the restaurant and hospitality industry. Our clients include single and multi-location restaurant owners, landlords, vendors, lenders, and franchisees that have industry-specific legal needs. In many instances, we’ve worked with clients to see their businesses grow and flourish, offering our advice and counsel where needed along the way.

Some of the legal issues where we can provide service to clients that are involved in the restaurant and hospitality industry include:

Business

• Entity selection, formation, documentation, and registration
• Management and ownership succession planning
• Buy-sell agreements, operating agreements, and shareholder agreements
• Employee incentive compensation arrangements
• Structuring and negotiating financing transactions
• Trademark registration and licensing arrangements
• Asset sales and acquisitions (both buyer and seller representation)
• Equipment Leasing
• Franchise Agreements

Employment

• Employee handbooks
• Employee discipline, termination, and documentation
• Employment Agreements
• Advice and counseling concerning compliance with state and federal employment laws, including but not limited to, the Family and Medical Leave Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act
• Training programs for managers and supervisors
• Workers’s compensation and unemployment

Litigation

• Premises liability and foodborne illness defense
• Dram shop litigation defense
• Contract disputes
• Trademark and trade dress
• Franchise termination

Real Estate

• Leasing (both tenant and landlord representation)
• Acquisition
• Land Use and Zoning
• Property Tax Appeals
• Real Estate Financing
• Environmental Due Diligence

Representative Experience:

• Financing the construction of full service convention center hotels in Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, and Illinois.
• Serving as full service general counsel to multi-location restaurant group. Services provided include entity formation, succession planning, real estate leasing, acquisitions, and land use, construction, employment advice and counseling, finance and litigation.
• Obtaining land use approvals necessary to repurpose existing building for restaurant use.
• Representing owners of several prominent mixed-use developments and landmark Indianapolis buildings in leasing to a variety of restaurant tenants.