Carpenter Law Group

06/12/2026

Small Business Alert: When "Women-Owned" or "Minority-Owned" Labels Become Legal Vulnerabilities

A phone call to a travel agency owner we represent highlights a new area of concern for businesses that tout being "women-owned" or "minority owned."

Our client proudly markets her business as a "women-owned-and-operated" agency. Recently, she received an unsolicited inquiry from a male applicant asking if he could apply. In today’s legal climate, this carries hidden risks.

With conservative legal groups actively targeting diversity initiatives, public labels like "women-operated" can be viewed by activist networks or applicants as an unwritten hiring policy that excludes men or majority groups. Recent Supreme Court rulings and EEOC guidelines mean "reverse discrimination" claims face fewer legal hurdles than ever before.

Our suggestion: Standarize your replies to unexpected inquiries, make it clear that all applicants are welcome, and celebrate your entrepreneurship, but also lean into your skill and expertise when marketing your business.

Protecting your business assets doesn't mean erasing who you are—it means making sure your public branding is legally secure.

Claims of reverse discrimination, a subject of recent court and executive attention, can be assessed with the same statistical approaches as discrimination.

06/09/2026

Gunes is 100% correct about this. (And I'm not surprised that we're on the same page about the risks involved.) We've been advising clients the exact same way, and for some reason, people like to argue with us about the risks involved.

Bottom line: Compared to the rest of the world, US travel agencies are remarkably under-regulated when selling travel. When you sell to residents of other countries, you're subjecting yourself to the laws and regs of those countries -- know what you're getting into!

Key Points AI-assisted summaryEU Package Travel Directive can bind U.S. advisors selling to EU residents, imposing refund guarantees, disclosures and cross-border liability, jurisdiction.Global licens

06/08/2026

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of John Tanzella. Through his leadership of IGLTA, John helped shape not only an organization, but an entire global community dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ travel. Our firm is honored to serve as counsel to IGLTA, which gave us the opportunity to see firsthand John's commitment, professionalism, and genuine care for the people and mission he served. My thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues, and the entire IGLTA community during this difficult time.

We are deeply saddened to share the news that our President/CEO John Tanzella passed away yesterday after an extended illness. For 20 years, John led IGLTA with compassion, vision, and enormous heart.

His unwavering commitment to advancing LGBTQ+ travel steered IGLTA to become the well-respected international organization that it is today; his generosity of spirit was the key driver in creating our philanthropic IGLTA Foundation.

At IGLTA, we often refer to our global community as family, and John truly made that a reality. He built a deeply connected team that has been leading the association alongside a passionate board of directors during his absence.

We will ensure that the association he loved so much continues to grow and thrive.

05/31/2026

Scams targeting travelers and travel advisors aren't just making headlines, they're something we hear about almost every day.

This article is a good reminder that fraudsters are getting more sophisticated, and in many cases they're using real booking information to make their scams look legitimate. Whether it's a fake payment request, a phishing email, or someone trying to hijack a reservation, the risks are very real.

We receive calls from advisors who have been affected by scams on an almost daily basis. The good news is that there are practical steps agencies can take to reduce their exposure, from tightening up internal processes to educating clients about common fraud tactics. It's one way that travel advisors can assert their value -- by staying one step ahead of scammers that prey on people who book on their own through OTAs.

Definitely worth a read.

Scammers now message travelers with their real hotel, dates, and confirmation number. Here is how reservation hijacking works and how to protect yourself.

05/30/2026

Well, it seems that the Governor signed the bill. Unfortunately, it was passed with no guidance on how we're supposed to comply with this. Stay tuned. More to come...

Maryland has passed a law requiring travel sellers to register, pay a fee and carry insurance, effective Oct. 1, despite ASTA's opposition. ASTA has concerns over unclear enforcement and guidelines.

05/30/2026

Top Line from the article (which is sadly behind a paywall):

"Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Alphabet’s Gemini may be great for helping with research or creating spreadsheets, but one thing they decidedly are not is your attorney. If anything, turning to artificial intelligence for legal advice can wind up backfiring, as it did for a white collar criminal defendant in New York who tried to shield from federal prosecutors his communications with Claude–the ones where he asked it for a legal defense strategy."

A new federal court ruling makes clear that business owners and executives can't expect confidentiality for legal discussions with AI, as they can with human attorneys.

05/20/2026

Travel advisors pour so much into building their businesses that it’s easy to overlook what comes next. We were more than happy to contribute our thoughts for this article, which digs into why succession planning matters now, how to get started, and what to consider when thinking about your legacy as an advisor. It’s a worthwhile read for any agency owner who wants their hard work to outlast them.

Have you started thinking about your own succession plan yet—or is it still on the “someday” list?

Travel advisors should implement a succession plan early to ensure smooth business transitions and protect clients, heirs, and staff. Seeking expert guidance and planning for client continuity are crucial steps.

05/14/2026

•••You may not want to use AI for that•••

Many popular AI tools “learn” from what you type into them. That may be fine for casual questions. It is a serious problem for legal documents, proprietary business information, and client personal data. Once you upload those materials, they can be stored on third‑party servers and used to train future models. They may also be shared inside the provider’s broader ecosystem. This can weaken trade‑secret protection, expose competitive strategy, and create serious privacy and regulatory risk for you and your clients.

Our advice is simple: do not paste contracts, internal documents, or client details into tools that train on user data. This is not about pride or about not wanting you to "check our work.” It is about protecting confidentiality, preserving attorney–client privilege, and managing your overall risk. If you want a second set of eyes on your documents, the safest option is still a direct relationship with your own counsel or other trusted advisors. In that relationship, your information is protected and someone is actually accountable for the advice you receive.

05/08/2026

As you’ve probably seen, the State Department is ramping up enforcement of long‑standing laws that allow the government to deny or revoke passports for travelers with significant unpaid child support. For travel advisors, this is a timely reminder about documentation—but it does not mean you now have to investigate clients’ personal legal or financial histories, or spell out every obscure reason their passport could be invalid.

You can still meet your duty of care by using a well‑crafted, broad provision about travel documentation in your terms and conditions. That clause should clearly state that clients are solely responsible for obtaining and maintaining all required travel documents—passports, visas, enhanced driver’s licenses, health/vaccination records, and any other entry or exit documents—and for confirming that those documents are valid for travel. When you shift that responsibility to the traveler in writing, and you point them to official resources like travel.state.gov, you are taking reasonable steps to warn and advise them without turning yourself into their compliance officer.

In other words, you do not need a “child support” paragraph in your T&Cs. What you do need is a strong terms and conditions document. If your current terms and conditions don’t already make documentation the client’s responsibility, now is the perfect moment to tighten that language and protect both your business and your travelers.

Under President Trump, the Department of State is using commonsense tools to support American families and strengthen compliance with U.S. laws. This includes preventing those who owe substantial amounts of court-ordered child support from neglecting their legal and moral obligations to their childr...

05/04/2026

Hello, San Diego! I'm returning to Travel Leaders Network's EDGE conference for the third year in a row.

This year, I'm doing four educational sessions:

Monday at 3:45: "Ask a Travel Lawyer"

Tuesday at 11:15: "The Contract Stack: Building Documents That Actually Hold Up"

Tuesday at 3:45: "When “Independent” Isn’t: Managing IC Risk in Travel Businesses"

and

Wednesday at 11:15: "Sales Don’t Save You: Structure, Compliance & Real Risk in Travel Businesses"

But whether or not you're at one of my sessions, track me down and say, "Hello!"