Hospitality Law

The hospitality industry moves fast—and so do we. Dickinson Wright partners with food & beverage and lodging businesses to build, grow, and operate their ventures with confidence, providing clear guidance on development, financing, licensing, and ongoing operations.

Whether you’re launching a new restaurant concept, expanding a hotel portfolio, or negotiating a management or franchise agreement, our hospitality team offers strategic, practical counsel from initial planning through ongoing operations.

Food & Beverage

We work with restaurants, bars, breweries, distilleries, and multi-unit operators to support expansion and operational efficiency. Our services include:

• Formation, structuring, and joint ventures

• Leasing, site development, and buildout

• Liquor licensing and alcohol regulatory compliance

• Supplier, vendor, and distribution agreements

• Franchise, management, and brand licensing arrangements

• Health and safety compliance

• Labor and employment considerations

• Data privacy and cybersecurity

• Dispute resolution

Lodging

We advise hotel owners, operators, developers, lenders, and REITs on matters ranging from early-stage planning to long-term portfolio strategy. Our experience includes:

• Acquisitions, dispositions, and financing

• Capital raising and investment transactions

• Zoning, land use, and permitting

• Design, construction, and mixed-use development

• ADA compliance

• Management and franchise agreements

• Portfolio transactions, including cross-border deals

• Operations, restructuring, and workouts

Representative Matters

Transactions, Acquisitions & Financing

• Guided clients through acquisitions and dispositions totaling more than $100 million in hospitality assets

• Represented a family investment fund as borrower in a $52 million construction loan for a hotel development in Naples, Florida

• Served as lead counsel in financing a nine-hotel portfolio across several Canadian provinces

• Represented a REIT in the acquisition of 16 hotels over two years

• Closed real estate transactions involving hotel-casino, restaurant, retail, industrial, and mixed-use properties

• Negotiated and closed equity and asset purchase agreements for multiple hospitality businesses

• Developed a patent-pending Equity Preservation UPREIT structure used to acquire multiple hotels

• Implemented innovative acquisition structures to preserve operator equity during post-pandemic stabilization

• Advised Dubai World on its exit from a 14-year joint venture with MGM Resorts involving the $9 billion CityCenter development

Development, Construction & Projects

• Represented a developer in the ground-up development of a major Las Vegas project, including casino, hotel, spa, entertainment venue, and parking garage

• Structured multi-layered financing packages involving equity contributions, construction lending, revolving credit, and interest-rate swap components

• Advised on zoning, land use, permitting, mixed-use development, and ADA compliance across lodging and restaurant projects

Licensing, Regulatory & Compliance

• Advised hotel and restaurant groups on governance, alcohol licensing, and trademark matters

• Counseled bars, restaurants, breweries, distilleries, wineries, and emerging beverage brands on corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and trademark protection

• Served as counsel to a nationally distributed creamed-whiskey brand on labeling, distribution, trademark, and liquor law compliance

Disputes & Litigation

• Represented landlords and tenants in commercial leasing matters for hotels, casinos, restaurants, and mixed-use properties

• Represented a hospitality ownership group in a dispute with a former hotel management company following successful property launch and stabilization

• Counseled hospitality clients on business formation, governance, conversions, and mergers

• Represented the parent company of three Las Vegas hotel-casino properties in defending against NLRB Unfair Labor Practice charges