Labor & Employment Challenges in the Hotel & Restaurant Industries (Presented by HospitalityLawyer.com)

Stephen Barth, founder | HospitalityLawyer.com®

Stephen Barth, author of Hospitality Law and coauthor of Restaurant Law Basics, is an attorney, the founder of HospitalityLawyer.com, the annual Hospitality Law Conference series, and the Global Travel Risk Summit Series. As a professor at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, University of Houston, he teaches courses in hospitality law and leadership. He is #3 on Global Guru’s Top 30 Hospitality Thought Leaders & Influencers for 2023. In addition to legal and travel risk mitigation insight, Stephen specializes in communicating the importance of Emotional Intelligence in leadership roles; and has provided valuable insight to many companies including The Methodist Hospital System, Wyndham Worldwide, Dine Equity, Business Travel News and Aramark. His fun, fast-paced presentations provide practical information and solutions to enhance your personal and professional life.

• Education & Credentials

He earned a B.A. in Economics, an M.A. in Communications, and a J.D. from Texas Tech University. His faculty profile also describes decades of work in hospitality law and leadership education, alongside litigation-support and expert-witness work in hospitality-related matters.

• Recognition & Leadership

He has received University of Houston teaching recognition, including the Career Teaching Excellence Award, and other teaching honors noted in his professional materials. He has also been recognized by Global Gurus in its hospitality rankings, including being listed as the #1 hospitality professional for 2022 and appearing in the 2023 and 2024 lists.

• Professional Involvement

His work includes building HospitalityLawyer.com as a platform serving hospitality lawyers and industry leaders with legal, safety, and risk-management resources. He is also associated with industry-facing conferences and summits that convene professionals around hospitality legal risk and travel risk management.

• Experience

Across more than three decades at the University of Houston’s Hilton College, his profile notes teaching and speaking activity at significant scale, including thousands of students taught, extensive publishing, and hundreds of industry presentations. His work also includes being retained in litigation contexts and contributing expertise on hospitality-related standards of care and operational risk.

Kendall Kelly Hayden, Partner | Cozen O’Connor

Kendall Kelly Hayden is a Member of Cozen O’Connor’s commercial litigation practice in the firm’s Dallas office, concentrating in transportation and hospitality law, retail, employment matters, professional liability defense, product liability defense, and construction defect matters. She serves as relationship partner for clients across a wide range of legal needs and is positioned to connect clients with appropriate counsel across Cozen O’Connor’s many practice areas. Hayden’s hospitality client representations include international golf management companies, hotels and restaurants, boutique bed and breakfasts, party suppliers, spas, marinas, and country clubs.

• Education & Credentials

Hayden earned her J.D. from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 2003 and her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Texas A&M University in 1999. She is admitted to practice in Texas and before all four U.S. District Courts in Texas, as well as the Texas Supreme Court. During law school, she served as editor-in-chief of the SMU Computer Law Review and Technology Journal. At Texas A&M, she served as president of her junior and senior class.

• Recognition & Leadership

Hayden has been recognized as Attorney of the Week by HospitalityLawyer.com on three occasions (2014, 2016, and 2018), named a “Rising Star” in Insurance in 2008 and in Transportation and Maritime Law from 2012 to 2016, and recognized as Dallas Pro Bono Coordinator of the Year by the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program in 2012. She was appointed by former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings to serve on the inaugural Dallas Mayor’s Star Council as one of 25 influential young professionals advising the mayor on city issues. She is an alumna of Leadership University Park and Leadership State Bar of Texas, and was elected in 2009 to serve a two-year term as Director of the Texas Young Lawyers Association board of directors.

• Professional Involvement

Hayden is a member of the National Retail and Restaurant Defense Association (NRRDA) an invitation-only organization for private practice attorneys nominated by members of the restaurant or retail industries and a sustainer of the Junior League of Dallas. She is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and holds memberships in the American Bar Association, the Dallas Women’s Lawyers Association, and the Texas Young Lawyers Association. She previously served as vice chair, office managing partner, pro bono coordinator, and Women’s Initiative co-chair for Cozen O’Connor’s Dallas office, as well as former vice-chair of the ABA TIPS Commercial Transportation Litigation Committee and former vice-chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s LegalLine Committee.

• Experience

Hayden regularly speaks at the annual Hospitality Law Conference and has served as a guest lecturer on legal issues in the hospitality industry at the University of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College. She has presented numerous times to the Club Management Association of America (CMAA). Her employment experience includes discrimination, sexual harassment, and overtime claims. Her transportation practice encompasses large commercially licensed vehicle operators, armored vehicles, and admiralty and maritime industry clients. She also serves as a mentoring attorney for the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program in the area of Consumer Law.

Jordan B. Schwartz, Partner | Conn Maciel Carey LLP

Jordan B. Schwartz is a Labor and Employment Partner in the Washington, DC office of Conn Maciel Carey LLP, where he advises employers on complex employment matters and defends companies in litigation across multiple jurisdictions. His practice covers discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour violations, trade secret misappropriation, and Title III ADA accessibility claims. Schwartz brings particular depth to the hospitality, club, and retail industries, where he has extensive experience defending hotels, restaurants, and retail operators in employment and accessibility disputes.

• Education & Credentials

Schwartz earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2002 and his B.A., cum laude, from Duke University in 1999. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, and New York, as well as multiple federal district courts including the Districts of Colorado, DC, Maryland, and the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Schwartz regularly speaks to professional audiences on workplace safety and employment compliance. Recent engagements include Choice Hotels International’s Annual Convention, the Hospitality Law Conference, the New England Inns (NEIRA) Annual Conference, the Resort Hotel Association (RHA) Annual Conference, and the Club Management Association of America. He also presents frequently as part of Conn Maciel Carey’s Labor and Employment Webinar Series.

• Professional Involvement

Schwartz advises employers on hiring practices, termination and separation agreements, FMLA and leave compliance, reductions in force, WARN Act compliance, employee handbooks, and drug testing and marijuana-related workplace policies. He also conducts employer training on harassment, discrimination, and diversity topics.

• Experience

Schwartz’s representative matters include defending hotels, restaurants, and retail stores in ADA Title III accessibility lawsuits, both brick-and-mortar and website accessibility claims, wage and hour class actions under the FLSA and state law, trade secret and non-compete disputes, religious discrimination claims arising from COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and sexual harassment and sex discrimination litigation. He has also conducted wage and hour audits and obtained default judgment in a trade secret misappropriation matter.

SESSION 1 – Staffing Pressure & Burnout | 12:00pm – 12:15pm

Chronic understaffing and unrelenting demand have made burnout the defining workforce crisis in hospitality. This segment examines how fatigue, scheduling failures, and staff attrition compound each other and how those pressures translate directly into legal exposure for hotel and restaurant operators.

SESSION 2 – Manager Behavior & Culture Risk | 12:15pm – 12:30pm

Front-line management conduct is among the greatest drivers of hospitality employment litigation. This segment addresses how supervisory behavior, culture failures, and inadequate manager training generate discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims that consistent operational leadership could have prevented.

SESSION 3 – Employee & Guest Safety | 12:30pm – 12:45pm

Hotels and restaurants carry a dual safety obligation to their workforce and guests. This segment examines how training gaps, supervision failures, and inadequate security protocols create overlapping premises liability and negligence exposure for operators across the hospitality industry.

SESSION 4 – Service Breakdowns & Liability | 12:45pm – 1:00pm

When service fails in hospitality, legal liability often follows. This segment explores how operational breakdowns, from food and beverage incidents and third-party delivery disputes to negligent supervision and vendor failures, expose hotel and restaurant operators to significant civil claims.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 5 – Trust, Leave & Retaliation | 1:10pm – 1:25pm

Expanding leave mandates and eroding employee trust are reshaping hospitality’s legal landscape. This segment covers safety leave, bonding leave, and FMLA intersections and examines how mishandled requests and retaliatory manager responses generate some of the costliest employment disputes operators face.

SESSION 6 – Technology’s Impact on People| 1:25pm – 1:40pm

Scheduling platforms, biometric timekeeping, and third-party delivery technology have introduced new legal risks into hospitality operations. This segment examines how automation and algorithmic management create wage exposure, misclassification liability, and employee relations challenges attorneys advising hospitality clients must address.