Hotel Legal Services
Our Hotel Practice Group is one of the few hotel legal teams built by a hotel operator. It is led by Amber Asher, a hotel industry veteran and former CEO of Standard International, the company behind The Standard and Bunkhouse hotel brands. With more than 20 years of in-house legal experience at companies including Morgans Hotel Group, Andre Balazs Properties, and Standard Hotels, our hotel lawyers offer a rare combination: hands-on experience navigating the complex, fast-paced world of global hotel development, brand expansion, and deep operational know-how. From initial brand conception and property acquisition through international expansion and high-stakes exits, we handle it all.
Our creative, industry-first approach combines real operational knowledge with honed legal expertise, so your portfolio is built for seamless growth, maximum asset value, and long-term legal protection.
Hotel Operations and Brand Management
Navigating the relationship between owners, operators, and brands requires a delicate balance of operational freedom and strict asset protection. We believe there is no one-size-fits-all solution to hotel governance. We have been on every side of the table and understand the bridge between owners, operators, developers, brands, licensees, and licensors. After more than 20 years in the industry, our strategic and creative approach to structuring deals comes from real-world experience building hotel businesses for scale. Our hotel attorneys draft and negotiate the vital frameworks that dictate how your properties run and grow:
- Hotel Management Agreements (HMAs): Crafting balanced operator-owner frameworks that protect your equity, maximize performance, and set clear operational boundaries.
- Technical Service Agreements (TSAs): Ensuring pre-opening requirements, brand standards, and engineering specifications are met before the first guest arrives.
- Design Development Agreements: Securing your architectural vision while mitigating construction, timeline, and intellectual property risk.
- License Agreements: Protecting brands and the components that make them unique, while ensuring owners and operators retain the freedom to operate and the brand standards that make their properties special.
- F&B Operating Agreements and Chef Agreements: Structuring the restaurant, bar, and culinary partnerships that define a property’s identity, from chef-driven concepts to third-party operator deals, with clear terms on branding, revenue share, control, and exit.
Intellectual Property, Experience-Led Growth, and Expansion
Scaling a hotel brand means leveraging your intellectual property while safeguarding your core assets. We help hotel and lifestyle groups take advantage of economies of scale, cross-border expansion, and strategic brand integrations:
- Residential and Brand Licensing Agreements: Expanding your brand’s footprint into luxury residential properties, mixed-use developments, and consumer products while maintaining strict quality control.
- Brand Strategy and Strategic Alignment: Advising on the formation, development, and expansion of hotel and lifestyle brands in a rapidly evolving luxury marketplace. We help clients leverage brand influence across every touchpoint, from culinary concepts and wellness programming to value-driven design, ensuring alignment with the expectations of the modern luxury consumer.
- Experience-Led Ventures: Structuring naming rights, private clubs, and sponsorship frameworks that help clients scale while maintaining exclusivity, identity, and a distinct competitive edge.
Acquisitions, Divestitures, and Global Strategy
In today’s market, the right legal structure can be the difference between a stalled deal and a signed contract. Whether you are expanding a local footprint or executing a cross-border play, our hotel lawyers guide you through every stage of the transaction:
- Hotel Purchase and Sales: Handling complex real estate and asset acquisitions, comprehensive due diligence, and seamless property transfers.
- Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A): Streamlining corporate rollups, consolidations, joint ventures, hotel-related fund formations, and strategic partnerships to drive valuation and investor appeal.
- International Hotel Transactions: Navigating the legal, tax, and regulatory landscapes of cross-border investments to expand your global footprint safely.
