Patrick Wartan, chair of Taft’s Food and Beverage group, and Daniel R. Saeedi, partner in Taft’s Labor Relations group, participated in the June 19 ISBA webcast, “What’s Cooking in the Restaurant Industry? A Survey of Trending Legal Issues.” 

The webcast delivered two points of view. One focused on the internal workings of a restaurant’s organization, and the other delivered the standpoint of related labor and organizational laws from a legal counsel point of view. Saeedi moderated the panel that featured program speakers including Wartan, as well as Susan Shelton, General Counsel, Portillo’s Hot Dogs, LLC and Ethan Samson, Associate General Counsel, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Inc.

The restaurant industry is the nation’s second-largest private sector employer with a workforce that exceeds 14 million people. An industry of this magnitude inevitably faces a wide-range of legal issues, making it important to stay abreast of the concerns that are unique to this type of business.

The panelists drew upon their experiences to bring their perspectives of the issues facing restaurant/food service businesses, including:

• Sexual harassment claims.
• Religious accommodations.
• ADA website compliance.
• Biometric information privacy compliance.
• Recent Supreme Court decision regarding arbitration.
• Tip pooling issues.
• Predictive scheduling.

Presented by the ISBA Business & Securities Section and the ISBA Commercial Banking, Collections & Bankruptcy Section, this webcast is 1.5 hours in length and can be streamed for 30 days from the original order date. For more information, visit here.