Biography

Karen Yuen is a general business and transactional attorney, the bulk of whose work involves advising privately and publicly owned businesses in the wine industry. These matters range from complex real estate and corporate transactions, including acquisition and disposition of wineries, vineyards, inventory, and brands, to general real property, corporate and tax matters, and general operations. With respect to the latter, Karen assists her wine clients in negotiating joint ventures, financings (from both the borrower’s and the lender’s perspective), grape purchase agreements, production agreements, and a range of other agreements, including those involving trademarks and licensing.

Her transactional practice is a natural extension of her mergers and acquisitions work. She negotiates the transaction and develops sophisticated, innovative strategies to help deliver her clients’ unique objectives and business needs. In conjunction with a purchase, she advises clients on how to hold and manage the business and assets. With respect to wineries, clients range from those who own their facilities and vineyards to virtual wineries that require advice on their relationships with vineyard managers, grape sources, and custom crush facilities. With respect to growers, Karen advises them on their relationships with vineyard managers and wineries.

Karen also advises clients on mergers and acquisitions in non-wine industries, and provides a similarly broad range of legal services, such as restating operating agreements, general corporate counseling, and other matters. Clients in this category have included real estate developers.

Her approach combines the practicality of a trained accountant, which she is, with the strategic thinking and trusted expertise of an attorney with considerable experience in family-owned, multigenerational businesses. She has developed numerous structures to help align business goals between the parties to a transaction, and handles generational and family ownership situations in which varying degrees of interest and operational expertise are harmonized in order to develop a favorable outcome for all stakeholders.

Firm Highlights

Event

The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions

Join Carly Alameda and Amy Briggs in the discussion on "The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions" to the ACC Bay Area Chapter. Corporate counsel are often tasked with negotiating...

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Publication

Nonprofit Basics: Conflict of Interest Policies and Best Practices for Approving Insider Compensation

Welcome to  EO Radio Show – Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . This episode is the second in a series discussing insider transactions. In episode 32, I gave a general overview of the federal laws...

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Publication

Nonprofit Basics: Best Practices for Approving Insider Compensation Decisions

Welcome to  EO Radio Show – Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . This episode is the third in a series discussing insider transactions by exempt organizations. In this episode, I'll look closely at best practices...

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Publication

State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations Go Into Effect April 1, 2023

The State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection has been actively pursuing comprehensive new wildfire protection standards for development in Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones and State Responsibility Areas where the State of...

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News

Profile in Women Leadership - Mary McCutcheon

Mary McCutcheon Headshot
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News

WhatsApp and Facebook Take the NSO Group to Court

Kyle McLorg was interviewed for the  Shoot The Messenger: Espionage, Murder, & Pegasus Spyware  investigative podcast episode “WhatsApp and Facebook Take the NSO Group to Court” produced by Exile Media in collaboration with The...

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Publication

I Always Feel Like AI Is Watching Me: Artificial Intelligence and Privacy

ChatGPT got the early press, and every day we learn of new generative artificial intelligence products that can create new and creative visual and text responses to human input. Following on ChatGPT’s fame, Google’s...

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Event

The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions

Join Carly Alameda and Amy Briggs in the discussion on "The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions" to the ACC Bay Area Chapter. Corporate counsel are often tasked with negotiating...

Read More
Event

23rd Annual Wine Industry Conference

Farella Braun + Martel is a Presenting Partner of the  North Bay Business Journal' s 23rd Annual Wine Industry Conference. The conference will explore new trends and challenges to the wine industry in the North Bay. Farella's Richard...

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News

Farella Advises TILT Holdings Inc. on $86.7 Million Debt Refinancing

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel advised TILT Holdings Inc. , a global provider of cannabis business solutions that include inhalation technologies, cultivation, manufacturing, processing, brand development, and retail, on a series of...

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