Hotel and Leisure Lawyers

Hotel and leisure experience

I have for many years been involved in this sector and in particular I have advised the Carlton Tower, the Lowndes Hotel and a number of well-known restaurants in Covent Garden on licensing and other property-related matters.

Recent work

The most interesting in many ways was the transfer of clients' licences from the old licensing justice system to the new local authority ‘premises licence’ system. That really was being involved in the passing of an era.

Why should clients choose you?

There is a danger of sounding trite here, but there’s no other way of putting it: I really do care about my clients and their businesses. You can have all the technical knowledge in the world – and as lawyers so we should – but you have to possess that extra involvement and commitment to do your absolute best for clients. Nothing else is good enough.

Challenges to meet

The smoking ban (initially) and the Olympics are obviously prime candidates, but I also think hotels and restaurants will need to pull out all the stops to retain that all-important ‘personal touch’ as more and more of their business is transacted over the Internet.

Dream destination

Cape Town and its surroundings – it has just about everything you could wish for in a holiday destination with penguins at Boulders Beach an optional extra.

The place to stay

The Devon Valley Hotel in the Cape. Sitting on the terrace and looking out over vineyards and the back of Table Mountain, food has never tasted so good.