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About this industry

Description

Our Leisure industry team provides legal and strategic business solutions to recreational customer-participatory businesses across the United States, from single operations to multistate chains, franchises and corporate companies.

Whether you are one location or a national franchise, operating a business in the leisure industry involves multiple moving parts, such as member and employee safety, professional trainer arrangements, and equipment maintenance. In this era of customization, leisure activity operators across the country are also exploring innovative ways to harness technology to enhance the user experience. We understand that managing your workforce and complying with all wage and hour, safety and privacy mandates is only one aspect of running a successful enterprise. Whether we are counseling on compliance or litigating a workplace dispute, our goal is always to obtain a favorable outcome while helping you run a business with an engaged and growing customer and membership base.

Clients

Our Leisure industry team of 300+ attorneys has deep experience with federal, state and local laws and the regulatory concerns impacting businesses in the following sectors.

  • Bowling centers 
  • Clubs: country, sports, yacht 
  • Fitness centers 
  • Golf courses 
  • Museums 
  • Resorts 
  • Zoos

Preventive wage and hour strategies

  • Exempt status
  • Application of the inside sales exemption
  • Pay structures for various employees, including personal trainers, group fitness instructors, individualized fitness instructors and/or regular hourly and managerial staff members
  • Implications of private in-home training sessions
  • Independent contractor issues
  • Treatment of managers who also work in other capacities
  • Recording hours worked, including travel time
  • Off the clock work
  • Reimbursements for expenses including certifications, music, cell phones, uniforms and fitness equipment
  • Do you really have to pay someone just for showing up?
  • Paystubs
  • Deductions from pay
  • Rest/meal periods
  • Equal pay issue

Guest relations

  • Guest discrimination and accommodation
  • Harassment
  • Fraternization
  • Protection of identity of VIP clients (AKA whales)

Employee relations

  • Sexual and other harassment claims
  • Age and other discrimination claims
  • Confidentiality (trade secrets and more)
  • Reasonable accommodation — religion/disability
  • Service animals
  • Marketing and advertisements
  • Social media
  • Privacy-related policies
  • Strategies to train managers/staff
  • Safety compliance
  • I-9 and E-Verify audits

Operations

  • Crisis management
  • Safety planning
  • Image
  • Recruitment practices
  • Email communication

Labor relations

  • Preventive labor relations programs for union-free and unionized employers
  • Negotiations, picketing and strike management for unionized employers
  • Labor arbitration

Talk to a lawyer

Office Managing Principal and Office Litigation Manager, Seattle