Maya Pri-Tal Ohana serves as Vice President and Senior Associate General Counsel, Compliance at Flynn Group. It operates franchised restaurants and fitness locations across the United States and other markets, including beloved brands like Pizza Hut, Applebee’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Panera Bread, Arby’s, and Planet Fitness. Each brand operates as a separate entity, but compliance expectations must align across the business.
Before Maya joined Flynn Group, she spent ten years litigating employment matters. She took one case through trial and managed disputes from start to finish. One case became a turning point in her career. “I was over the moon for my client,” she remembers. “But I didn’t get the joy from beating the other side that I think you need if you’re going to be a lifetime litigator.
“Litigation taught me many important lessons, and I am a better lawyer for having started out that way. But I am not a litigator at heart, not at all.” One of those lessons was staying calm under pressure. “My first deposition was with a convicted murderer in one of the local state prisons. After that, I was never intimidated by a deponent again.”
Going in-house
Through her years of practice, Maya realized she preferred solving problems before they reached a courtroom. An opportunity to go in-house in a long-term secondment role with one of her firm’s clients, The Regents of the University of California, gave her a glimpse into in-house practice. From there, she took another role in higher education, overseeing the office responsible for all workplace investigations at Arizona State University.
While that work was very fulfilling for her, it lacked the tactical problem-solving that she craves. Flynn Group offered that path, especially in an industry where legal guidance touches daily operations. Working in-house in the food industry means lawyers need to think like operators rather than sit in the ivory tower. Compliance decisions affect staffing levels, wages, and how shifts run. For Maya Pri-Tal Ohana, that reality defines her role at Flynn Group, where legal guidance must work at the store level without slowing service.
“Any in-house counsel worth their salt knows that they need to dial down over-lawyering and turn up practicality to be effective,” Maya explains, “and that’s not always true in litigation.” That awareness shapes how Maya approaches in-house work in restaurants. She doesn’t frame compliance in terms of legal theory. Instead, she focuses on whether guidance works for operators managing stores during busy service hours. Her team builds systems that make things easier, not harder.
“We take things that are stressful or distracting for our operations and, ideally, we make them go away. We automate them, simplify the process, and make it impossible to get it wrong. That’s what we strive to do every day in our roles,” she shares.
Her remit expanded in 2025 to include overseeing the human resources side of compliance, increasing her team’s size and changing how she allocates her time. The shift reinforced what defines in-house legal work in food service: proximity to the business, speed, and constant attention to how decisions land in stores.
Flynn Group operates in 44 states, each with its own legislative agenda. Employment rules, safety standards, and operational requirements change frequently, and Maya’s team monitors them before they take effect. The work focuses on preparation rather than response and requires the diverse skill sets of the compliance team at Flynn Group.
The group handles most compliance work internally. Maya leads three direct reports, one of whom manages additional team members. The team includes former operators, payroll professionals, compliance specialists from heavily regulated industries, HR professionals, and “recovering litigators,” as Maya likes to call herself. The structure reflects the scope of the function, which spans seven brand-level entities.
Maya joined Flynn Group in 2021, when it invested in a dedicated compliance leadership role. At the time, restaurants faced new regulatory pressure that required structure and coordination. Her role grew alongside the business as acquisitions added locations, employees, and complexity
The focus, though, remained steady. Maya sees compliance as support work and problem solving. Her team’s goal is to remove obstacles so operators can focus on running stores. That perspective shapes how the legal function works with the rest of the business. “We take our core value of helping operators do what they do best very seriously. Our team is drawn to this culture of selflessness.”
Culture affects how often the legal team joins conversations that don’t have a legal label. Business leaders invite Maya into discussions early because they see her function as a partner, not a checkpoint. She pays close attention to how her team shows up, what problems they solve, and whether their involvement helps decisions move forward.
Flynn Group continues to expand through acquisitions. Its Pizza Hut portfolio now includes more than 1,000 US restaurants following purchases in states such as Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The group recently announced it will operate a new brand, 7 Brew, under a development deal to open 160 new stands. Each transaction brings new systems, teams, and local requirements.
Maya’s time as a litigator shapes every part of her practice, including how she evaluates risk. She’s seen how policies can fall apart in real workplaces. That perspective helps her spot the difference between issues that affect daily operations and those that are only theoretical. “You can’t really know what ‘right’ looks like until you’ve seen it go very wrong,” she observes.
She brings that lesson to contract review, policy design, and advisory work. “Rather than aiming for completeness on paper, I aim for clarity in practice,” she notes. “I was absolutely ready for this role, but I’m still learning every day,” she adds. “I haven’t had the chance before to work with so many nonlegal professionals as a leader, and I love it. The team brings together a wide range of skills and experiences. I can’t just be a lawyer in this role. I need to think about how I can make the biggest impact for our operators.”
Her team must wear many hats. The compliance team evaluates ideas through the lens of store reality and, in collaboration with other support center departments, is vital to implementing compliance projects. They consider whether an issue exists in practice, whether a proposed fix would change outcomes in the most effective way, and how it would affect a store during peak hours. That perspective guides what the team takes on and what they set aside.
Maya learned to balance curiosity with decisiveness. “Working in-house doesn’t allow unlimited time for research. Decisions need to support movement,” she points out.
“My desire for information and my curiosity can’t hold back competence or getting things done,” she adds. “You have to focus on what matters and what doesn’t, then offer the best advice to help the business move forward.”
Operators and people
Much of the compliance team’s impact shows up quietly. Policies shorten. Processes merge. Systems handle steps that once required reminders. Operators notice when tasks disappear from their workload.
Maya frames that outcome as stress reduction. When compliance works, it removes pressure rather than adding it. “At the end of the day, we take what stresses people out and eliminate that stress,” she says.
Her interest in the restaurant industry reinforces that focus. Flynn Group’s brands serve guests in everyday moments, and she values contributing to those experiences from behind the scenes. “I love the restaurant industry. I love being part of giving people the experiences they want when they visit our brands.”
Flynn Group recognized her contribution with the Only the Best award, which she received as the first team member outside headquarters to earn the honor. The recognition reflected alignment with company values rather than a single initiative.
Maya’s path from litigator to in-house compliance leader didn’t follow a straight line, and that’s exactly what makes her story inspiring. Every pivot added depth, perspective, and resilience. Her experience highlights an important truth: successful careers aren’t always linear, and the courage to shift course can open the door to work that matches your skills and your spirit. In Maya’s case, that courage led her to a role that blends problem solving, leadership, and purpose, and to a place where a once unexpected journey now feels exactly right.
