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Our approach + outlook

Restaurants may not be the easiest way to make money but they are one of the most human ways to do so. Which is why restaurant industry employers across all operating concepts and ownership structures turn to Jackson Lewis. Our 180-attorney Restaurant Team serves up the legal and strategic business solutions that employers in the high-labor/low margin restaurant industry need to assess and address abundant workplace challenges. From wage and hour regulations and staff acquisition to labor relations, frequent employee turnover and customer contact concerns, we help make day-to-day workforce management more efficient and effective. With experience gained from advising ≈2,000 single- and multi-site restaurants across the country on how to comply with federal, state and local laws, we help clients act confidently and defend decisively to achieve unparalleled people and profit objectives.

Clients

Beyond being recognized for employment and labor law, we’re valued for appreciating the nuanced restaurant context in which it’s applied.

We provide industry-specific representation to single- and multi location owners and operators in the following restaurant subsectors: 

  • Drinking Establishments
  • Fast Casual
  • Fine Dining 
  • Full-Service Casual
  • Institutional/Niche
  • QSR/Fast Food

Jackson Lewis represents more than one-third of the top 100 U.S. chains as ranked by Nation’s Restaurant News.

Key capabilities + client concerns

Operational immediacy and labor intensiveness, combined with legal complexity, regulatory volatility and constant exposure to claims, is a recipe for needing sound advice before and in the moment — not after the fact. We provide proactive industry-specific guidance across the following areas to help our restaurant clients efficiently and effectively address the challenges baked into every shift, location and customer interaction.

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Preventative Wage + Hour Strategies

  • Advice on nuanced and complex restaurant-specific pay models.
  • Litigation-avoidance strategies for tip pooling/service charges and tip credits, side-work challenges, dual jobs / 80-20-30 rule, exempt status, regular rate and overtime calculations and joint employment exposure.
  • Guidance on paystubs, deductions from pay, rest/meal periods, payment for uniforms, off-the-clock issues and equal pay concerns.
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Employment Litigation Defense / Claims Management

  • Management of class and collective actions impacting restaurant employers, with scalable strategies to prevent compounding risk. 
  • Industry-informed defense of wage-and-hour, discrimination and accessibility claims. 
  • Guidance on agency investigations and enforcement actions from initial response through resolution.
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Workforce Verification

  • Multijurisdictional compliance for large, high-turnover workforces. 
  • Immigration-related compliance reflecting the industry’s workforce composition. 
  • E-Verify and I-9 completion, audit readiness and immigration enforcement risk awareness.
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Harassment / Employee Relations

  • Advice on preventing and addressing sexual and other protected class harassment in fast-paced, customer-facing environments. 
  • Prompt, thorough and defensible investigations of harassment complaints and enforcement of anti-retaliation safeguards that protect workforces, culture and brand. 
  • Data-driven risk insights and proactive compliance strategies to reduce exposure to harassment and hostile work environment claims, especially in multi-location and high-turnover workplaces.
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ADA Title III / Public Accommodation

  • ADA accessibility obligations for customers, including service animals, physical accessibility and reasonable accommodations, with a focus on risk mitigation and compliance. 
  • Proactive steps to avoid claims and enforcement actions.
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Ongoing Practical Advice + Counsel

  • Industry-specific policy and handbook development and drafting, and training for management and staff.
  • Operational guidance aligned to restaurant realities.
  • Business-practical counseling framed around what clients can do.

Featured insights & news

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Principal, New York City
Office Managing Principal and Office Litigation Manager, Orlando