Roles

For example in your user model:

 public function hasRole($role)
    {
        if(strtolower($this->role->name) == strtolower($role))
        {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

You could use this: https://github.com/Zizaco/entrust

you could find your happiness here : Sentinel Package the easier way to build authentication & permission system.

https://laracasts.com/lessons/users-and-roles

Entrust is amazingly simple and built just for Laravel.

Also Sentinel 2.0 is compatible with Laravel 5 Check the documentation there are a section dedicated to Laravel 5.