Legal practice in the hospitality industry is both substantively and geographically demanding: it requires not only a knowledge of industry practices and operations but also the ability to bring a variety of legal disciplines to bear, and it often requires the provision of services in multiple areas. This has made the hospitality industry a natural fit for Jones Day's services. Jones Day lawyers have amassed the sophistication and experience to handle a wide variety of client needs in the hospitality industry in a variety of locales. Whether the particular project is the acquisition or sale of a single hotel or a portfolio of hotels, a loan to a hotelier, a merger, the negotiation of hotel management or franchise contracts, the protection of trademarks or other intellectual property, commercial litigation, international arbitration, labor and employment advice, development and construction contracting (or handling a construction dispute), or a host of other services, Jones Day offers the expertise.

Although we frequently find ourselves representing large investors, our hospitality practice is as wide-ranging as the nature of our clients. We do not focus our practice in a specific geographic area or in a particular industry segment. Rather, we emphasize providing business-efficient skills for a wide array of engagements, local, national and international.

At one end of the spectrum, Jones Day was involved with one of the first multinational mega-transactions in the industry, the acquisition of InterContinental Hotels worldwide by Seibu Saison in the late 1980s, and Jones Day has remained involved in many mergers and acquisitions to date. We have also helped privately-owned companies go public, including Interstate Hotels Corp. Yet we still retain an active practice in buying and selling individual hotels and small portfolios, both for investment funds and for individual investors.

Our financially-oriented services to hospitality industry clients include everything from hotel acquisition, construction/renovation and mezzanine loans, on behalf of lenders and borrowers, secured by individual hotels and hotel portfolios, to loan restructurings, workouts and bankruptcies. We are also actively engaged in day-to-day issues, such as management and franchising -- from the negotiation of contracts for hotels to the sale of franchised restaurants to disputes over contract terms -- and rendering tax advice in the United States and in various European and Asian countries.

As a result, there are several dozen attorneys within Jones Day worldwide who have handled engagements for clients within the hospitality industry. Some illustrative engagements can be found on the link to "Experience" and a far more extensive listing is available upon request. The link to "Related Services" will lead to more detailed descriptions of practices and teams that deliver specific skills to our clients.

Contact(s)

Steven A. Teitelbaum
Washington
Tel: 1.202.879.3939
E-mail

Zachary T. Paris
Cleveland
Tel: 1.216.586.3939
E-mail

David Smith
London
Tel: 44.20.7039.5959
E-mail

Hugh W. Chapman
London
Tel: 44.20.7039.5959
E-mail

Masatomo Suzuki
Tokyo
Tel: 81.3.3433.3939
E-mail