Richard P. Mendelson
Richard Mendelson is an internationally-recognized expert on vineyard and wine law and related land use, intellectual property, business and administrative law issues. He chairs the DP&F's Wine Industry Group. Over the past two decades, Richard has handled legal matters involving almost every aspect of the wine business, including liquor licensing, environmental challenges to vineyard development, grape purchase agreements, winery use permits, representation of winery clients before the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and federal Alcohol & Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, state and federal label approvals, distributor appointments and terminations, and import-export contracts. Richard has a special expertise in geograhical indications and has been responsible for obtaining recognition for some of the most well-known American Viticultural areas. He assisted the California legislature with the drafting of legislation for the protection of the world-famous Napa Valley geographical indication. Most recently, he successfully defended a California truth-in-labeling law on befhalf of the Napa Valley Vintners in the case of Bronco v. Jolly, he argued before the California Supreme Court. Richard’s background in the wine industry began as a graduate student at Magdalen College, Oxford, which houses one of Europe's largest wine cellars. In 1977, he completed the Higher Certificate course offered by the London Wine and Spirit Education Trust. He then moved to France to work as the assistant to the Export Director of Bouchard Aîné et Fils, a Burgundy wine shipper (1978-79). During and after law school, Richard worked in the legal department of Wine Institute, California's wine trade association. After three years of civil litigation practice in San Francisco (1983-86) and one year as an international trade consultant, he moved to Napa to pursue his representation of the vineyard and wine industry. Richard presently teaches a full semester Wine Law course at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He has lectured extensively on vineyard and wine law as part of the vineyard and wine law degree programs of the University of Aix-Marseille and the University of Bordeaux in France and at the University of California at Davis. He teaches the law section of the Bordeaux Wine MBA program and the Davis School of Management Wine Executive Program. Richard also is chair of the annual Continuing Education of the Bar Wine Law Forum. He is a founding member of the International Wine Law Association, headquartered in Paris, and served as its president from 1992 to 1995. Richard is a member of Hospitaliers de Pomerol, a Bordeaux honorary wine society. He is a grower and wine proprietor himself, producing Mendelson Pinot Gris and Muscat Canelli Dessert Wines and Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir. His first release, 1996 Pinot Gris Dessert Wine, scored 95 points in the Wine Spectator. He also is a metal sculptor, whose works have been exhibited in Northern California. PRACTICE AREAS Alcohol Beverage
Intellectual Property
Land Use Regulation
EDUCATION B.A., Harvard University (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) 1975
M.A., Oxford University, 1977
J.D., Stanford University, 1982 LANGUAGES French rmendelson@dpf-law.com
|
