Sandman Savrann Announces Formation of Law Firm Dedicated to the Hospitality Industry
Sandman Savrann Announces Formation of Law Firm Dedicated to the Hospitality Industry
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Boston, MA, New Haven, CT and Seattle, WA (January 18, 2010) – Irvin W. Sandman and Russell C. Savrann announced the formation of Sandman Savrann PLLC, a law firm devoted to providing comprehensive legal counsel to the hospitality industry. Sandman Savrann’s highly regarded hospitality industry counselors will lead a team of 50 professionals on the East and West coasts to deliver exceptional, cost-effective, and industry-informed counsel for local, regional, national, and international hotel companies. The firm’s structure includes two associated firms, Sassoon & Cymrot in Boston and Vandeberg Johnson & Gandara in Seattle.
Sandman Savrann’s industry counselors are distinguished by their extensive knowledge, experience, contacts, and reputations in the hospitality industry. “Providing narrow, technical legal assistance is no longer enough,” said Sandman. “Hotel companies need counselors who also know the special relationships that exist in the industry, who have extensive contacts within it, and whose reputations are built on trust, loyalty and integrity. Then they can actually help clients create relationships and opportunities and accomplish objectives that otherwise might not be achievable.”
Sandman has focused exclusively on regional, national and international hotel work for twenty years, and has served as lead counsel in hundreds of hotel industry engagements worldwide, including troubled hotels. He is also the 2008 national recipient of the Anthony G. Marshall Hospitality Law Award, given annually to an individual who has made lasting contributions to the field of hospitality law. Savrann’s extensive industry experience includes over a decade of in-house service at hospitality companies, first as General Counsel for The Ground Round, Inc and then as Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He returned to private practice in 2005, when he joined Sandman as a principal member of the hospitality industry group at Graham & Dunn. Both Sandman and Savrann are founding board members of the Hospitality Industry Bar Association.
The Sandman Savrann team includes lawyers and resources from its two associated firms, Sassoon & Cymrot in Boston and Vandeberg Johnson & Gandara in Seattle. “These team members bring in-depth practice and technical knowledge to fully handle the special needs of the hospitality industry, including trademark, franchise, litigation, employment, securities, and tax,” said Savrann. “Our ties with both of our associated firms go back many years,” he said. “We are proud to have established a formal organizational structure with these two firms, whose lawyers and paralegals we know so well.”
The firm of Sandman Savrann plans to grow its core of nationally-regarded industry counselors by adding counselors in geographically diverse markets so that the firm will have the largest concentration of this knowledge and skill in the country. The first expansion will be in Scottsdale, Arizona with an office to be led by Andy Anderson. Anderson previously served as Vice President in the hospitality and franchise finance groups at both Citi Franchise Finance and GE Capital Solutions, as Vice President of Acquisitions and Development at Troon Golf, and as General Counsel at Granite Golf. He has nearly 20 years of experience as practicing attorney with a well-rounded background of legal expertise in real estate, finance, land use law and transactions. “Andy brings extensive hospitality, lending, workout, and development experience to us, and we are proud to have him join us and lead our presence in Scottsdale, a center that is so important to the hospitality industry,” Sandman said.
Sandman and Savrann previously practiced together as leaders of the hospitality industry group at the Seattle firm of Graham & Dunn. Sandman formed the group in 1993 and served as its chair since its inception. “I enjoyed my years at Graham & Dunn, and I appreciated the opportunity to create and establish a highly-regarded hospitality industry practice. To serve as a first choice team for the hospitality industry, however, it was necessary to create an expanded firm, with national resources and an explicit dedication to serving the needs of the industry,” said Sandman.
“A real need exists for a law firm with our focus and dedication,” Savrann said. He explained that all significant business law firms organize in practice area silos, such as tax, trademark, real estate, and litigation. “Clients, however, are not in the ‘litigation business’—rather, they are involved in industries, such as the hotel industry. Because of this silo organization, law firms aren’t organized to build, maintain, or teach industry knowledge among its professionals.” As a result, said Savrann, clients—including hotel industry companies—often must educate and re-educate their lawyers about the basics of their industry, the players in the industry, and their business strategies and objectives.
“Sandman Savrann will fill this need for the hospitality industry,” said Sandman. “The firm’s dedication to the hospitality industry will take full advantage of industry knowledge, resources, and service to provide unique value to clients.”
