The lodging industry faces a number of important and potentially treacherous legal issues this year and beyond. Many of these topics will be explored in depth at the eighth annual Hospitality Law Conference, scheduled for Feb. 3-5 at the Omni Houston Hotel.

Founder and host of the conference is Stephen Barth, president of HospitalityLawyer.com and professor in the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College. Each year, Barth and his associates bring together leading hospitality legal minds for panel discussions, general sessions and networking functions. Among the highlights of this year’s conference:

• Five subject tracks will focus on information protection and privacy, human resources and labor relations, food & beverage, fundamentals of hospitality law and loss prevention and risk management.

• Three pre-conference workshops on Wednesday, Feb. 3 will highlight hospitality real estate transactions, information protection and privacy and issues for in-house legal counsels.

• A two-session series on Thursday, Feb. 4 will explore critical legal issues operators and attorneys need to know about hospitality operations. Topics covered include systems for reservations and revenue management, OTA relationships, brand standards, hotel taxes, premises liability, handling holdover guests, theft claims and various employment issues.

• Also on Thursday, conference chairman Barth will lead a discussion on effective ways to negotiate agreements with online travel agencies.

• A returning feature of the conference is the Franchise Debate, which pits franchisor and franchisee lawyers in a discussion of issues of common concern.

• Protect-A-Bed is sponsoring a panel discussion on Thursday afternoon on the risks and liabilities of bed bug infestations and how to prevent them.

• The highlight social event is a wine tasting and product showcase, which will be held Thursday evening.

For more information and to register for the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference, go to www.hospitalitylawyer.com.