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Mark Hicken is a Vancouver lawyer providing a full range of legal services to the wine and liquor industry through his own law practice, Vintage Law Group, located in Vancouver, BC. Vintage can advise on shipping compliance, operations risk/liability, LCLB licensing issues, LDB regulation, enforcement defence, license transfers, purchase/sale, import/export advice and export compliance/clearance for alcoholic beverage products.
Mark writes and manages the well respected wine law website, winelaw.ca. Mark also provides direct marketing services and internet marketing services to wineries and wine agents through his marketing agency, Must Wine Marketing Group (see also companion blog, winemarketing.ca).
Mark has a B.A. (Honours) from UBC and a J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. He is a member of the Law Society of B.C., the Canadian Bar Association and the International Association of Wine Lawyers (Association Internationale des Juristes du Vin). He has also completed the Wine Executive Program at the University of California, Davis. Mark has a diverse background including time spent working for larger Vancouver law firms such as Lawson Lundell and Russell & DuMoulin (now Fasken Martineau), entrepreneurial technology businesses and marketing agencies. Mark is also a fixture at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, having been a Team Leader or Event Host there for the past decade or so. He is currently a member of the Wine Committee for the Playhouse's 2010 Gala. Mark was the co-chair of the November 2009 conference in Vancouver, Winery and Wine Distribution Law.
Mark has always been passionately interested in wine, technology and marketing. At the advent of the internet revolution in 1998, Mark created technology that enabled professional services firms to offer services on the web. Mark gained national media attention for this breakthrough with feature articles in the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Calgary Herald. Mark has also been featured on various internet sites and been a guest lecturer in the Internet Marketing program at the University of British Columbia. Recently, Mark has also been interviewed and quoted on wine law issues in the National Post, the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Sun, the Vancouver Province, the Advocate, Canadian Lawyer Magazine, CKNW radio, CBC radio and in the trade publication Wines & Vines.
Mark believes that effective legal advice must be provided in the context of a client's business objectives. This is critical in the Canadian wine industry where regulatory structures affect every aspect of the business from conception to consumption. Please feel free to contact Mark if you have any questions about legal issues affecting your winery or agency. Also please let Mark know if you would like any general information about a particular topic posted on this web site or on winelaw.ca.
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