Final Orders for the Hospitality Sector’s Leading Lawyer

L-R: Jon Dodd, Matt Rogers and Geoff Forbes at the Goodwood Park Hotel. Photo by Ryan Cantwell.

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This month marks the retirement of one of the hospitality sector’s longest-serving commercial lawyers. With a career spanning more than 40 years, Geoff Forbes has spent the last twenty at the helm of Piper Alderman’s hospitality sector practice, advising a range of clients from individual pubs to the industry’s largest corporations. In that time, he has also been at the centre of some of the most significant changes the industry has seen, from the large-scale shift in property ownership to individual licensees in the 1990s, to the introduction of gaming into hotels.

For Geoff, there were two factors that kept him focused on the relatively specialised field of hospitality sector law; the clients, and the range of work. “Throughout my career, one aspect of my client work that I really valued was the down to earth nature and resilience of most of the licensees I’ve dealt with. As a lawyer, this has allowed me to give full, frank advice and work productively with clients to get the right result – even in pretty testing circumstances at times. The other thing that’s really kept me engaged and interested in the sector is the sheer variability of the work. I can go from working on a comparatively small transaction with an individual licensee to dealing with a complex, multifaceted matter with a large-scale hospitality brand.” But Geoff was keen to emphasise that the size of any transaction doesn’t necessarily align with its importance. “You have to remember; the $100,000 transaction is just as important as the big transaction. These smaller transactions are critically important to that individual licensee. I, and Piper Alderman, never underestimated that.”

This approach to hospitality law led Geoff Forbes to become one of the country’s leading practitioners whose value is acknowledged in the sector. Matt Rogers, Publican at The Goodwood Park and Marina Hotels has relied on Geoff’s counsel for the last twenty years, including on purchase and lease contracts. “He is one of the best in the industry when it comes to representing clients in the hospitality space. We have great confidence in him, his attention to detail and extreme professionalism standout. We also have great confidence in working with Piper Alderman moving forward with the team having the mentorship, training and practical experience of working with Geoff over recent years.”

And as he walks away from the sector, Geoff feels the market is entering an interesting and potentially exciting time. “Here in South Australia, we’re seeing a period of heightened consolidation in the hospitality sector, and increased investment interest from interstate. This may reflect a change in perceptions of SA as too highly regulated or simply be a sign of a market where there is an opportunity for growth post-COVID. From a strictly legal standpoint, the ongoing debate around gaming regulation, specifically linked to new technology such as facial recognition, is really interesting, regardless of where you stand on the issues.”

The focus will now be on continuing the success and growth of Piper Alderman’s market leading hospitality practice, with Jon Dodd’s recent appointment to partner. Jon has worked alongside Geoff for the last 15 years, and is looking forward to providing continued guidance to Piper Alderman’s clients through this changing landscape. “Jon is hugely experienced in the sector, and somebody I have worked with for many years now,” comments Geoff, “he has the utmost integrity, reliability and diligence – all critical traits for a lawyer! But he is also adept at matching a highly diligent approach to transactions with the commercial concerns of clients. This stands him in excellent stead. He also has the weight of Piper Alderman behind him, a firm which has shown a consistent willingness to engage in hospitality matters, no matter which end of the market.”

Geoff Forbes retired on 2 July 2021. Piper Alderman has offices in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. You can learn more about the firm’s hospitality practice at piperalderman.com.au or contact Jon Dodd on jdodd@piperalderman.com.au