Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Law: A Preventive Approach: Custom Version for Scottsdale Community College

Karen L. Morris is a lawyer, judge, and professor at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York. She is the first community college professor to receive the designation of Distinguished Professor from the State University of New York. The courses she teaches include Hotel and Restaurant Law, Business Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Law 101. As a town judge she presides over criminal and civil cases, including lawsuits brought against hotels, restaurants, and travel agents.

In addition to writing five editions of this textbook, she has published a case- studies book for business law and a treatise on criminal law, as well as articles in various publications on topics of interest to the hospitality industry.  She pens a column for Hotel Management Magazine titled, “Legally Speaking,” and a blog for Business Law students that explains the legal underpinnings of news stories of interest.  She has been honored with several awards including two for Excellence in Teaching, Golden Pen, Distinguished Citizen, and Outstanding Student Club Faculty Advisory Award.

Professor Morris was the legal advisor to the New York State Restaurant Association, Rochester Chapter. She has served as President of Text and Academic Authors Association, Dean of the Monroe Country Bar Association, and President of her Faculty Governance Association. She is a past president of the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys. She has also served as president of The Academy of Legal Studies in Business, Northeast Region. Her favorite volunteer activities are being a Big Sister in the Big Brother/Big Sister program, and serving lunch at a soup kitchen.

Before beginning her teaching career, Judge Morris was in-house counsel for a corporation that operates department stores throughout the United States, and thereafter was a criminal prosecutor.

She has a Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University and a Masters of Law (LL.M.) in Trade Regulation from New York University.

Jane Boyd Ohlin is an Associate Professor and the Director of Strategic Development at the Dedman School of Hospitality, Florida State University. She served as the Director of the Dedman School of Hospitality from 2008 to 2016. Professor Ohlin has a long-standing association with Florida State University, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration there in 1979, and her Juris Doctor from Florida State University College of Law in 1986. She joined the faculty of the Dedman School in 1989.

Prior to joining the faculty at Florida State University, Professor Ohlin worked in the consulting practice of Laventhol and Horwath, Certified Public Accountants, in Tampa, Florida. Her clients were leaders in the hotel, restaurant, resort, and tourist destination business. Her area of expertise was in management consulting and litigation support. There, she gained a great deal of experience in the legal, financial, and operational analysis of many hospitality businesses.

Professor Ohlin has gained a global perspective on the hospitality industry through her teaching of university students during the summers in Leysin, Switzerland, through the International Programs delivered by Florida State University. She also teaches hospitality management to university students from around the world each summer on the campus of Florida State, through the Center for Global Engagement. Additionally, she supervises the exchange student affiliation of the Dedman School with universities offering hospitality degrees in other countries.

In addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in law, Professor Ohlin also conducts research focused on the legal issues faced by hospitality businesses. She currently serves as the Statewide Coordinator of University Hospitality programs for the Florida Department of Education and has served on the Advisory Board of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of Hotels and Restaurants. She has been an active member of the Florida Bar since 1987. In her free time, she enjoys traveling with her family.

The authors are grateful to Norman C. Curnoyer and Tony Marshall, their predecessors as authors of earlier versions of this book. Both men were giants in the field of Hospitality Law.