Announcing the Formation of a Wine, Beer and Spirits Law Committee

WINE TALK
1

At its meeting yesterday morning, the New York State Bar Association Business Law Section Executive Committee unanimously approved the formation of a new committee, the Wine, Beer and Spirits Law Committee. The de facto temporary chair is an unnamed Wineberserker with over 12000 posts.

Membership in the committee is free, but to be a member you must be a member of the NYS Bar Association and its Business Law Section. We are exploring the possibility of permitting attorneys who are admitted in other jurisdictions but not admitted in New York to become adjunct members of the committee.

A tentative list of subcommittees includes:

  • New York state licensing issues.


  • International importation and exportation.


  • Interstate commerce and shipping.


  • Labeling and other federal licensing and approval issues.


  • Cross-border networking with attorneys in other relevant jurisdictions (e.g., Scotland for Scotch, Bordeaux, Piedmont, the Douro Valley), which may arrange overseas meetings and networking events. After someone else takes responsibility for leading the committee, my wife will volunteer me to chair this subcommittee because she just retired after 43 years defending wrongfully accused indigents for Legal Aid and she loves to travel. Travel to Napa and Sonoma to meet with members of the Northern California Bar Association may also be arranged.

A tentative first meeting and networking event will be the evening of January 28, 2020, during the NYS Bar Association annual meeting week in New York City. The location of the meeting will depend upon the number of people who sign up to attend. The large number of NY attorneys who also collect wine will be expected to provide refreshments.

2

I’d join, but I’m licensed in NJ. Good luck.

3

We have some silly bylaw rules I may have to jump through, and I’m too old to jump very high, but I want to try to give people admitted elsewhere “adjunct member” status. When we travel to Bordeaux to teach CLE classes to French attorneys admitted in New York (there are a lot of them), it wouldn’t hurt to have a “foreign” state perspective to show them federalism at work.

4

Why only lawyers?

5

Because it is a committee of the NYS Bar Association focused on providing legal information for attorneys in their practice of law and sharing information on New York and federal legal rules applicable to alcohol with foreign attorneys in the same practice area.

6

You, of course, are writing in an exception for Victor, aren’t you? [snort.gif]

Make it happen!!

7

Nice idea Jay. I’m no longer on the east coast. I suppose you could probably recruit a number of people from the attorney oenophile group Asher had. Potentially you have a good client base of high net worth individuals though. And are there other such groups in other states? That could create a lobbying group with some potential clout. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

8

fun. this might make me join the state bar association.

9

Is this an elaborate scheme to expense Saxum :slight_smile:

10

Asher is now one of my law partners, so we have already factored in the possibility of a joint meeting.

11

It certainly should!

12

So it’s another’s tasting group but with the occasional but obligatory “professional” interruptions?

13

No. I have enough tasting groups. It’s a serious committee that will educate on legal issues related to alcohol and possibly draft legislation and engage in lobbying efforts while not taking itself so seriously that it will not end meetings with an appropriate “good and welfare” networking session.