Carpenter Law Group

07/16/2026

NOTE: This post was not intended to start a round of personal attacks. I'm disabling comments, and deleting the personal attacks. I'm talking about patterns I see in the industry, and this post is not directed at anyone personally.

A former independent contractor recently filed a misclassification complaint with the IRS against one of our travel agency clients — and the IRS closed the file after reviewing the relationship and finding no basis to proceed, thanks in large part to a strong IC agreement and solid practices around how that relationship was managed.

For agency owners:

If you’re working with IC sub-agents, this is why a real, well-drafted IC agreement (plus good day-to-day practices) matters so much. You can’t stop someone from complaining, but you can put yourself in a strong position when a regulator looks under the hood.

For IC advisors:

Please don’t treat social media as your employment lawyer. A lot of what you see online about what the agency can or can't do is flat-out wrong or wildly oversimplified. If you’re worried about your own setup, get your actual contract and facts in front of someone who understands travel-industry ICs — not a Facebook comment thread.

06/29/2026

AI is great at a lot of things. It is horrible at practicing law.

We’d strongly recommend that you resist the urge to run your legal and proprietary documents through generative AI. For one thing, every time I've seen AI return feedback about a legal document, it’s made recommendations which, if adopted, would create tremendous liability and legal risk if our client implemented them. I haven’t seen AI get the law right — not even once.

Second, you’re waiving attorney/client privilege when you upload your docs to a third-party AI tool, and that could be a disaster if you were to ever get into a dispute about anything that’s in those documents.

And on top of that, your confidential and proprietary information is stored on a server, used to train the bot, and can be accessed by third-parties without authorization — so you’d have a really hard time enforcing any type of confidentiality provision from that point, on.

We know that people just want to make sure that they’ve got everything covered appropriately, and we’re not offended if people want to check our work, but using AI to do that can really create lots of problems in your business, which most people don’t fully appreciate.

06/25/2026

ALERT for Travel & Tourism Businesses: Don't Ignore This Mail

If you've recently received what looks like a bulk mailer — or even something that resembles spam — from a person named Vivek Shah, do not throw it away.

Shah is a serial pro se litigant who has been sending out mass demand letters and draft complaints to businesses across the country, alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (C**A) related to website tracking tools. His letters arrive via bulk mail and can easily be mistaken for junk mail.

Here's why this matters: He has actually filed these lawsuits. Travel and tourism companies are among his targets, and the potential statutory damages under C**A start at $5,000 per violation.

Our office has been advising travel businesses on exactly these types of claims. Reach out — we're here to help.

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.