Upton Connell & Devlin, LLP

Upton Connell & Devlin, LLP is a Boston law firm that represents companies and individuals in all aspects, and at all levels, of administrative law, with a specialty in the alcoholic beverage and hospitality industries. We represent well established companies and start-up businesses, and we represent clients ranging from European wineries, the largest restaurant and hotel chains in the United States and some of the largest and best-known breweries in Massachusetts, to locally owned liquor stores and independent and chef-owned restaurants located across Massachusetts. Our partners’ almost collective eight decades of legal experience has allowed us as a team to excel in the following areas of legal representation: • Liquor license, restaurant, and package store purchases, acquisitions and transfers; • The licensing of breweries, wineries, distilleries, wholesalers and importers at the United States Trade & Tax Bureau (TTB) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission (ABCC) and at the local licensing authorities located throughout Massachusetts; • National label registration across the United States, Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) applications, trademark registrations and national compliance with the various states’ distribution laws; • Defending against TTB and ABCC investigations; • Liquor license violation hearings before the ABCC and the local licensing authorities located throughout Massachusetts; • Commercial lease drafting and litigation; • Business formations, financing, mergers, acquisitions, sales agreements and shareholder governance issues; • Distribution agreement drafting and litigation, including brand and label franchise compliance and litigation before the ABCC; • Government relations; • Municipal zoning, entertainment and land use issues; and • Appeals and litigation against regulatory agencies in Massachusetts state courts.