Assignment

You have been offered a paralegal position with a firm in Raleigh, NC. A local winemaker has contacted your firm for legal assistance. No one in the firm knows anything about this subject but would like to expand into this area since the wine industry is rapidly growing in North Carolina. Your supervising attorney has requested your help.

The facts are as follows: The client owns two vineyards in North Carolina; the vineyard located in Orange County is planted with Merlot grapes and the other vineyard, which is planted with Chardonnay, is located five miles further north in Person county. Your client harvested the first crop in both vineyards last fall and will be bottling the wines next year. She is in the process of creating labels for the bottles and knows that the law dictates what can appear on a wine label. She seeks your assistance in working out the details.

She also knows that the government has already created or is talking about creating a viticultural area, also known as an AVA, called "Haw River Valley." She wants to be able to put "Haw River Valley" on the labels of both wines, since everyone thinks highly of and is willing to pay extra for wines produced from grapes grown in this area.
Please respond to the following:

1. Let's begin with the question about the label generally. This area of law is a good candidate for administrative regulations. Devise a strategy for locating relevant regulations on Lexis. Describe and explain your strategy below (e.g., steps taken to locate the relevant information) and indicate the relevant title and sections of the C.F.R.

2. When working with regulations, always note how current they are. How current are the relevant regulations?

3. Have any amendments to the regulations been issued since the latest update to the C.F.R. database on Lexis/Westlaw? How did you make this determination?

4. How would you determine if the agency that issued the relevant regulations has proposed or is thinking of proposing any changes to the existing rules?

5. If you were asked by the firm not to incur Lexis/Westlaw charges for this client, what option(s) would you have for conducting the research required to answer Questions 1 through 3 above?

6. Turn your attention now to the issue of whether your client can include the phrase "Haw River Valley" on the labels. Can this phrase be included on the labels for both wines? Please describe in detail the information you used to formulate your answer.

You do not need to "IRAC" or cite case law for each answer here. Just explain your answer as clearly as possible and give the reason. Cite applicable law and sources where necessary and appropriate.