Protests, Accusations and Regulatory Representation 

Our litigation practice focuses on administrative hearings and appeals of license protests, trade practice violations and disciplinary accusation proceedings commenced by TTB, ABC and other agencies (including police departments and local planning commissions) with jurisdiction over industry members.  
 
We defend against license application protests by neighbors, consideration points, police and government agencies, helping our license applicant clients build positive relationships with their neighborhood and reduce conditions on their licenses. We pursue mediation and other alternative dispute resolution strategies to resolve protests before hearing whenever possible, and have successfully defeated numerous protests at the hearing level and through the appeals process.
 
Our accusation defense practice is sophisticated and diverse. We have represented clients before TTB, ABC, the ABC Appeals Board, the District Court of Appeal, and the California Supreme Court since 1990.  We successfully defended the first sale-to-minor cases in California, including victory before the California Supreme Court, which resulted in the adoption of ABC Rule 141.  Since then, we have represented licensees in hundreds of decoy cases, often through appeal to the ABC Appeals Board.  We have also represented hotels, bars, restaurants, adult entertainment clubs, private clubs, grocery stores, liquor stores, gas stations and many supplier clients to successfully defend license suspension and revocation cases involving alleged violations relating to premiums, gifts or free goods; marketing and events compliance; exceeding license conditions; sales to allegedly obviously intoxicated patrons; b-girls; attire, conduct and entertainment requirements; food requirements and other trade practice violations.