The Premier Hospitality Practice in a Full-Service Law Firm

GLOBAL HOSPITALITY GROUP

The hospitality attorneys in the Global Hospitality Group® of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell comprise the premier hospitality practice in a full-service law firm, and the most experienced legal and advisory team in the industry. Our team of 50 seasoned hotel lawyers has more than $68 billion in hotel transactions experience, involving more than 1,500 properties located around the globe providing one of the most extensive virtual data bases of market terms for deals and financings.

The hospitality lawyers of our team are not just great hotel lawyers—we are also hospitality consultants and business advisors, dealmakers and facilitators of the flow of capital. We help our clients find the right operator, joint venture partner or capital provider. We know who to call and how to reach them.

We advise on what are “market” terms and how to reach or exceed them. We help define key business goals, assemble the right team, develop strategies to optimize value and then get the deal done.

Our lodging and hospitality lawyers represent hotel owners, developers and lenders. Our clients rely on us for:

  • Assembling the right team. Because our hotel lawyers know and have worked with all the major players in the industry, if there is a hole in your team, we can help you fill it
  • Getting the right hotel operator. We don’t just review hotel management agreements, we help you get the right operator and the optimal terms. We lead you through an interactive process that identifies the best possible operators for the property, sell the strongest attributes of your project, connect with the pivotal people at management companies, and guide the process of negotiating optimal terms to secure a fair management agreement
  • Connecting with the right brand. Branded management is not for everyone. When you want to self manage or hire independent operators, we can help you determine an optimal brand for your property and negotiate the right terms
  • Taking care of management agreements. Building on the practical experience gained from more than 1,000 management contracts, we will help you negotiate, renegotiate, litigate, arbitrate—or terminate hotel management agreements
  • Crafting relevant solutions and creating value in development, acquisition and sale agreements. Our $60 billion of experience means that we have seen just about everything, and we likely have a rich choice of options to solve your problem. We know the market and market terms
  • Providing access to hotel finance. For nearly 20 years, our hospitality attorneys have produced a major annual hotel finance conference called “Meet the Money®,” which sustains and enhances the role of the Global Hospitality Group® as a gateway to hotel finance for our clients. In 2007 alone, we helped connect clients to more than $400 million in debt and equity financing
  • Developing complex joint venture and entity structures. Because we have represented both the providers of capital to joint ventures and the operating partner, we know the players and their expectations. We are often on the leading edge of defining market terms, and consult with clients on what these terms mean in the context of their business goals and opportunities
  • Helping clients effectively manage their workforce. Labor is one of the largest controllable expenses at most hotels and resorts. We know the players at UNITE-HERE and SEIU union locals and how they often trip up and when they bluster. We know the troubled spots in the hotel environment for labor and employment issues

Our strengths include labor-management relations such as union prevention, collective bargaining for single, as well as multi-employer bargaining units, neutrality agreements, advising on union corporate campaigns and defense of unfair labor practice charges before the NLRB. We implement preventive management strategies, such as executive training, arbitration enforcement and policies and procedures. And we defend administrative and litigation claims, such as employee claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Our hotel lawyers know the hospitality business from every angle, and we provide our clients with creative options and practical solutions, for individual properties to billion-dollar portfolios that involve:

  • Hotels
  • Resorts
  • Condo hotels and hotel condos
  • Hotel-enhanced mixed-use
  • Restaurants, spas and other amenities
  • Golf, tennis and entertainment-related facilities
  • Fractionals and timeshares
  • Hotel workouts, receiverships and bankruptcies

The Global Hospitality Group® is also brought in on signature stadiums and arenas, as well as on assisted living facilities.