Food and Beverage

Select examples of our attorneys’ past work include:

• Representing a restaurant operator/developer in a 24-property sale/leaseback, simultaneously closing $20 million in loans secured by the assets of entities operating 63 fast food restaurants, including Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, T.G.I. Friday’s, Blaze Pizza, Old Chicago and Long John Silver’s.
• Representing a food manufacturer in connection with its efforts to classify and manage a food safety recall event, including helping the client develop and implement its recall process and liaise with the FDA to ensure step-by-step regulatory compliance.
• Successfully representing a roaster and coffee house owner in trademark and copyright litigation with an artist, resulting in the client obtaining all intellectual property rights to the relevant artwork.
• Representing a branded food company in implementing its contract manufacturing supply chain and in handling food recall matters and related claims.
• Representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in In re Giordano’s Enterprises, Inc. (Bankr. N.D. Ill.).
• Representing a national fast-casual restaurant franchise in the sale of a minority interest to a San Francisco-based private equity firm.
• Representing a large food manufacturer in negotiating an international joint venture with a food ingredient provider.
• Structuring a joint venture among major distributors of institutional kitchen equipment in creating a national purchasing consortium.
• Counseling a start-up in the successful effort to create an indoor urban farm and roll out a sustainable program that will eventually have the indoor farming equivalent of 50,000 tillable acres.
• Representing a major restaurant chain in reducing operating costs in all Chicago stores by obtaining an express exemption from the City of Chicago’s Individual Pricing Rule applicable to all retail food establishments.
• Defending a vodka manufacturer against a trademark infringement claim, resulting in a settlement permitting it to continue its use of the name.
• Defeating plaintiffs’ motion for conditional certification in a Fair Labor Standards Act case, where the plaintiffs alleged a national policy of failing to pay for training and orientation.