PARTNER
CAROL KINGERY RITTER
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Carol has specific expertise in the preparation and negotiation of essential wine business contracts, such as grape purchase agreements, distribution agreements, wine production agreements, vineyard leases and vineyard redevelopment agreements, and counseling clients through complex vineyard, winery and wine business sales and acquisitions. Carol’s expertise in the area of real property and business transactions offers clients comprehensive counsel from the formation and restructuring of business entities to acquire assets or launch new businesses to the investigation of complicated real property and title issues. Carol also counsels clients on the formation of American Viticultural Areas through TTB.
While at DP&F, Carol has represented American and International wine companies and grapegrowers, wine importing companies, wine brokers, developers, REITs, financial institutions and public and private companies in matters ranging from business entity formation and restructuring, commercial transactions, real estate sales, acquisitions and leasing, business and asset sales and acquisitions, and debt and equity financing transactions.
Prior to joining DP&F in 2008, Carol practiced in San Luis Obispo at the law firm Adamski, Moroski, Madden & Green, LLP. While at AMM&G, Carol worked on transactions and litigation at the State Superior Court and Appellate Court levels involving real property, business and construction matters.
While in law school, Carol was a legal intern with the Oakland Raiders and a summer associate with Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP in New York, New York. She also provided consulting services to the non-profit organization Justice Network on Women. Carol has a long history of volunteer and non-profit work with the Women’s Positive Legal Action Network where she worked with HIV-positive women in prison to improve health education within the prison system and provided legal advocacy support. She has lectured extensively and published on the subject.
Carol lives in Napa with her husband, Scott Ritter, who also works in the wine industry, and their twin girls, Mia and Shay.
CONTACT
ckritter@dpf-law.com
707-261-7000
1500 First St., Ste. 200
Napa, CA 94559
V-Card
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J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law (2003)
B.A., Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley (Highest Honors, 1999)
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ASSOCIATIONS
Chair on the Blue Oak School Board of Trustees (2021-)
Queen of the Valley Medical Center, Community Benefit Committee (2021- )
Auction Napa Valley, Grants Review Committee Member (2017-2019 Committee Chair)
Auction Napa Valley, Community Board Member (2014-2019)
Recognized as one of the “Top Forty under 40 Professionals” by the North Bay Business Journal (2014)
State Bar of California
Napa County Bar Association
National Association of Professional Women
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WRITINGS
Wine in America Law and Policy, Second Edition, Chapter 8 “The Impact on Climate Change on Wineries and Vineyards: Mitigation, Adaptation, and Prevention,” 2023
“Managing the Consequences of Competition in a Competitive Industry” 2014 – Download Publication
“Grape Purchase Agreements – Why a Handshake Deal May Not Simplify Your Business” 2008 – Download Article
“Speaking Out Against State Violence: Activist HIV-Positive Women Prisoners Redefine Social Justice,” 2001
“Yell Real Loud: HIV – Positive Women Prisoners Challenge Constructions of Justice,” 2000 – Download Article
PRESENTATIONS
Presenter, “Vineyard Leasing,” Napa Valley Grapegrowers, May 2021
Presenter, “2021 Winter Round Table: How to Update your Grape Contracts,” Napa Valley Grapegrowers (co-presented with John Trinidad), February 4, 2021
Presenter, “Passing the Torch,” Unified Wine Symposium, January 15, 2021
Presenter, “Grape Contracts and Lessons From 2017,” Napa Valley Vintners, August 25, 2020
Presenter, “Vineyard Leases vs. Grape Purchase Agreements & Alternating Proprietorship vs. Custom Crush,” The Seminar Group, March 13, 2019
Presenter, “Grape Contracting & Smoke Exposure: What a Cluster,” Lake County Grapegrowers, September 6, 2018
Presenter, “Grape Purchase Agreements: Why a Handshake Still Matters,” Sonoma County Winegrowers, July 27, 2018
Presenter, “Impacts of High Land Values on Grape Contracting,” The Seminar Group, November 16, 2017
Guest Lecturer, UC Berkeley School of Law Wine Law Course,
Winter 2016Presenter, Sonoma County Wine Grower Educational Meeting, April 2016
Presenter, Napa Valley Vintners – Earthquake Recovery Workshop, August 2014
Guest Speaker, The Lake County Winegrape Commission – Wine Industry Contracts-Why the Relationship is as Important as the Contract Itself,
March 2014Guest Lecturer, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo- Wine Law and Compliance,
Fall 2013Guest Lecturer, UC Berkeley School of Law Wine Law Course,
Fall 2013Presenter, Grape Purchase Agreements: Why a Handshake Still Matters,
Wine Industry Forum,
August 2013Presenter, Boundaries In Question 2000, University of California, Berkeley, April 2000
Guest Lecturer, University of California, Santa Cruz, Women and Prison class. Summer 1999 and 2000
Presenter, Women, Psychology, and HIV Disease, Psychology Continuing Education certification course. Summer 1999
Presenter, Alternative Sentencing for HIV Positive Individuals: What to do If Someone You Know Is Arrested, Alameda County Office of AIDS. September 1999