Twin Peaks

The Illinois Administrator has filed a complaint alleging that an attorney engaged in a conflict of interest.

The client

 Between 2008 and 2013, Respondent began a longstanding attorney-client relationship with Front Burner Restaurants (“Front Burner”), a restaurant management and holding company. At all times alleged in this complaint, Front Burner was the holding company for the restaurant brand and chain known as Twin Peaks Restaurants (“Twin Peaks”). Twin Peaks operated bar and grill establishments which included as part of their marketing strategy that waitresses and female bartenders known as “Twin Peaks Girls” were “the essential ingredient” to customer satisfaction. Twin Peaks restaurant locations regularly conducted “theme weeks,” in which waitresses and female bartenders were required to wear swimsuits, lingerie, and revealing costumes.

Respondent’s representation of Front Burner included the liquor license application process for Twin Peaks restaurants with individual municipalities, as well as as-needed representation in liquor license violation proceedings. Respondent and Front Burner had an unwritten fee agreement whereby Front Burner agreed to pay Respondent at the rate of $200 per hour for all services which he provided. Respondent billed Front Burner through the Tanzillo Law Group entity for services Respondent provided to Front Burner, including legal work performed for Twin Peaks.

In or around 2016, Respondent and Front Burner agreed that Respondent would represent the Twin Peaks restaurant’s Orland Park, Illinois location (“Twin Peaks Orland Park”) in obtaining a liquor license prior to the restaurant’s grand opening in April of 2016.

The issue in Orland Park

At all times alleged in this complaint, the Village of Orland Park Village Code of Ordinances required, in part, that all licensees, officers, associates, members, agents, representatives, or employees of entities dispensing or serving food or alcoholic liquor had to be decently clothed. Orland Park Village Ordinance 2989/7-4-23 stated that it was “unlawful for any person, while acting as waiter, waitress or entertainer to expose his or her genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, natal cleft, perineum, anal region or pubic hair region,” and further prohibited “any licensee to permit or allow any waiter, waitress or entertainer to commit any of the unlawful acts” outlined in the ordinance. Violations of the Village Code were punishable as municipal ordinance violations with monetary fines.

As of February 2017, the employee agreement signed by all Twin Peaks waitresses and bartenders required them to “comply with Twin Peaks Image and Costume Standards.” While not explicitly described or defined in the employee agreement, the original costume required of waitresses and female bartenders consisted of shorts, a v-neck shirt, knee-high socks and boots, but progressed over time to include the expectation that waitresses and female bartenders wear shirts that exposed their cleavage and midriff, and other revealing attire such as bikinis and shorts that exposed the crease of their buttocks, and which purportedly fit within regularly promoted costume “theme weeks.”

In February 2017, for the week of Valentine’s Day 2017, management at Twin Peaks restaurants nationwide, including the Orland Park location, implemented a “theme week” entitled, “Sweetheart Lingerie Week,” and required their waitresses and female bartenders to wear revealing lingerie.

The police went undercover and uncovered uncovered employees

On February 11, 2017, Orland Park police officers returned to the Twin Peaks Orland Park restaurant. At that time, the officers observed employees S.B., B.B., A.F. and K.S. dressed in attire which the officers determined was in violation of Village Ordinance 2989/7-4-23, in that a portion of their buttocks was revealed by the attire. The officers consulted with Morales, who told the officers that he believed all of his employees were in compliance with the ordinance. Officers brought employees S.B., B.B., A.F. and K.S. to the managers’ office and issued municipal ordinance violations to them individually, and to the Twin Peaks Orland Park restaurant entity as well. The ordinance violation that was issued to the Twin Peaks Orland Park restaurant entity was given to Morales.

The attorney allegedly represented the employees without their knowledge or consent

 Between April 11, 2017, and May 9, 2017, on behalf of Twin Peaks Orland Park and purportedly on behalf of S.B., B.B., A.F. and K.S., Respondent agreed to Huguelet’s demand to accept a plea of liable to all of the ordinance violations stemming from the February 11, 2017 incident, and fines for those violations in the following amounts: $250.00 for Twin Peaks Orland Park, and $100.00 each for S.B., B.B., A.F. and K.S.

The employees were told that the matter was taken care of

At no time after May 9, 2017, did Respondent inform S.B., B.B., A.F. or K.S. that he had pled them liable to the ordinance violation, explain what the plea meant, including that that they might be required to admit to the factual basis for the plea in future background checks or applications, that they had 35 days in which to appeal the plea or that the offense to which Respondent pled them guilty was considered to be a non-expungable conviction.

A second count alleges a false statement under oath in the bar investigation. (Mike Frisch)