Virtually every business owner must deal with real estate issues, including: commercial leases or subleases, buying or selling the business real property, zoning, real estate taxes or landlord and tenant issues. Wright, Constable & Skeen has been handling real estate issues for its clients for nearly a century. We are a licensed title agent for Chicago Title Insurance Company in Maryland and can close real estate transactions. Your location is the foundation of your business and is too important to leave to chance. Our Restaurant Law Group can help you draft or negotiate your commercial lease or contract of sale and can work with you in any real property disputes that may arise to find an effective resolution.

Corporate issues can range from the structuring of your business to governance to mergers and acquisitions. Your corporate structure is critical in protecting the individual owners from personal liability in the corporate dealings of the business, from tort liability and with respect to tax and income issues. However, that corporate structure must be properly established and maintained to reap the benefits of liability protection. Maintaining proper corporate governance includes having and following by-laws, holding annual meetings and keeping corporate assets, income and accounts separate from individual assets, income and accounts.  The Wright, Constable & Skeen Restaurant Law Group will work with you as “outside general counsel” to help you with all of your corporate issues.  We have the depth of knowledge and experience in the restaurant industry to counsel you on all corporate matters including mergers and acquisitions, stock sales, purchase agreements and succession planning.

Employees are a very important part of any successful restaurant and indeed any business. Employees can also generate numerous legal problems for a restaurant owner. Whether it is wage and hour claims, overtime issues, minimum wage issues, hiring/firing concerns, employee handbooks, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, leaves of absence (FMLA), disability accommodations (ADA), work place safety or tip and compensation issues our restaurant lawyers have deep industry knowledge and experience with all aspects of the employer/employee relationship.  The Wright, Constable & Skeen Restaurant Law Group can help you proactively address your employee issues before they arise and counsel you on best practices to avoid or minimize such issues in the future. Great service is the hallmark of any great restaurant, but great service starts with great employees and maintaining a strong employer/employee relationship in compliance with all applicable laws is a necessary component for any restaurant.

Suppliers provide everything from food and beverages to fixtures, equipment, tables, chairs and signage.  Numerous issues can arise with respect to your relationships with your suppliers including contract/purchase order review, drafting and negotiating, collection disputes, compliance disputes and agreement enforcement.  The Wright, Constable & Skeen Restaurant Law Group can give you the support you need to keep your supplier relationships running smoothly.  When disputes arise, our team of lawyers is experienced in resolving disputes and will seek to solve your supplier problems and create opportunities for you by delivering effective and efficient solutions.

The restaurant industry is heavily regulated by a dizzying array of ever-growing and changing rules, regulations, codes and laws. Business licenses, liquor licenses, health inspections and zoning compliance are all critical regulatory compliance matters that can shut your business down or affect your brand good will.  Our team of lawyers understand the restaurant business and have the broad depth of experience in the industry to help you understand and comply with the applicable regulatory environment.

I-9 forms, E-Verify, Visa rules, reporting and record keeping requirements and more, the web of immigration laws and regulations can be overwhelming, and the smallest slip-up can lead to steep fines and penalties. The Restaurant Law Group at Wright, Constable & Skeen, can assist you in understanding and navigating the immigration compliance requirements for restaurant businesses.

You work hard every day building and maintaining your business, but the day-to-day work can make it difficult to plan for the future and to think strategically about what will need to be done when the time comes to retire or to pass the business on.  The Wright, Constable & Skeen Restaurant Law Group can help you with succession planning to create and implement solutions to achieve your succession goals and address such issues as leadership transitioning, providing family continuity, succession tax planning and others. Winston Churchill once said “he who fails to plan is planning to fail.”  Let us help you create a strategic plan for succession.

Despite your best efforts, it might become necessary to seek the protection of the bankruptcy laws to give your business a chance at a fresh start or to wind down the business in an orderly fashion.  In some circumstances it may be possible to avoid formal bankruptcy through work-out negotiations with the creditors.  The Wright, Constable & Skeen Restaurant Law Group is experienced at work-out discussions and bankruptcy and we can explain and guide you through appropriate process.

Family owned business have all of the normal issues of any business, but also have another layer of issues related to the presence of family in the ownership and operation of the business. The Wright, Constable & Skeen Restaurant Law Group has experience counseling family owned businesses and dealing with the unique challenges that come along with the family dynamics.