One Embarcadero Center, 18th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
Contact: Jeannie Bremer
Phone: 415-984-8247
Mobile : 415-994-0313
Website: www.nixonpeabody.com
Hospitality and beverage alcohol suppliers, distributors, and retailers from around the world rely on Nixon Peabody's Beverage Alcohol Group for practical, comprehensive legal counsel on local, state, national, and international beverage issues. Our experience enables clients in all tiers of the industry to meet their full range of legal challenges—from obtaining regulatory approval to launching new brands to negotiating international trade agreements.
Our in-depth industry knowledge is complemented by the broad resources of a full-service, national law firm. Nixon Peabody has sophisticated practices in IP/trademark, tax, environmental, real estate, employment, private equity financing, and M&A law.
Our attorneys provide guidance on matters involving the manufacture, licensing, taxation, labeling, advertising, marketing, distribution, and sale of wine, beer, and spirits. Our extensive experience covers:
Business formation
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Winery, brewery, and distillery operations
- Trade practices and compliance training
- Licensing
- Franchise law and distributor relations
- Advertising and marketing
- Label and formula approval and brand registration
- Trademark registration, protection, and clearance
- Clearance of promotions and sponsorships
- Product development and distribution strategies
- Customs matters
- AVA petitions
- Import, export, and distribution agreements
- Regulatory compliance
- Environmental and water rights issues
- Labor and employment matters
- Bioterrorism compliance
- Litigation related to all of these areas
Recent experience
- Provided strategic advice to a winery when it was notified by a national delivery service that shipments of all its products would be halted due to alleged state prohibitions against importation.
- Conducted due diligence, developed distributor alignment strategies, and completed all license transfers and brand registrations for a large U.S. wine company when it acquired new brands and facilities.
- Assisted various national hotel and retail chains, distributors, and importers with acquisition strategies, logistics, distributor realignments, and licensing matters when they acquired or sold assets.
- Provided guidance to a winery at every step in the process of establishing new facilities, including alternating bond premises.
- Assisted in due diligence, franchise analysis, and distributor consolidation strategy for a major U.S. importer when it acquired rights to foreign brands.
- Negotiated sponsorship agreements for manufacturers that wanted to sponsor clubs in stadiums and/or nationwide tours.
- Worked successfully with opposing interests and legislative staff to draft and secure passage of a bill when our client needed special 11th-hour legislation to avoid a tied-house conflict.
- Enabled our client, a U.S. wine exporter, to quickly secure the release of containers of product seized in Europe due to labeling issues.
A dedicated group
Our group's attorneys and professional specialists keep a tight focus on current developments that affect the beverage industry's competitive and regulatory environment, and we have a long track record of providing outstanding client service. We are members of, and hold leadership positions in, several of the beverage alcohol industries' most important global and national organizations and associations. Our aim is to provide our clients with creative, effective, and cost-efficient legal solutions that are compatible with their business priorities.
For more information about the services of Nixon Peabody's Beverage Alcohol Group, please contact:
Rob Carrol - 415-984-8404
Vince O'Brien - 212-940-3139
