As seen in San Diego Magazine –
Candace was recently featured in an article about the coolest things happening in San Diego right now. Read the full article here.
Candace MoonWe have an actual craft beer lawyer.
Craft beer is a highly regulated industry, and one with specific needs that are different from that of, say, the wine industry. Few people know this better than Candace Moon, San Diego’s own craft beer attorney, who handles everything from trademarks and licensing to complicated business issues for about 350 clients across the country.
As a bartender at Hamiltons Tavern while she was in law school, Moon got to know a lot of local brewers. After graduating, she didn’t really know what she wanted to do with her degree, so she stuck to what she knew—bartending. Then, at an industry event, she had something of an epiphany.
“I met a wine lawyer and a lightbulb went off,” she says. “I knew a lot of brewers, but I didn’t know of any lawyers that specialized in their specific needs, so I decided to become a craft beer lawyer.”
Moon launched her solo practice in 2009, and the demand for her services grew exponentially. She recently closed her practice and joined Dinsmore & Shohl’s Beer, Wine and Spirits Practice Group, which represents alcoholic beverage producers across the world.
Most of Moon’s clients are in California, and “quite a few” are in San Diego. “I’d say at some point, I’ve worked with almost every brewery in town on some issue, and some breweries more than others,” she says. Her first San Diego client was Monkey Paw. “I had worked for Scot Blair at Hamiltons and he was kind enough to give me a shot early on.” Some other notable local breweries she’s worked with include Green Flash, Alpine, AleSmith, and Mother Earth, but by far her favorite request to date was “a client asking how they would get federal formula approval for a beer recipe that included breast milk.”
Being a craft beer aficionado herself, Moon was expecting some perks to come with the job. “I did think I would get more free beer,” she says. “But since everyone pretty much pays their bills, I can just buy the beer.”