Dickenson Peatman and Fogarty, chosen as Best Company to Do Business with in Napa County, presents itself online as “dedicated to providing exceptional services and sophisticated expertise while taking a genial and courteous approach to client relationships.” Scott Gerien, co-managing director and head of the firm’s intellectual property group, explains that the firm’s service philosophy boils down to responsiveness. With a solid local and national reputation, what makes this company special is the attention it gives to its clients. The “client-centered” approach, as he puts it, may seem a small thing, but for the client, it’s all-important.
Adding to the firm’s client-centered feeling is that it’s a local—not a national or regional—firm, and that makes for a sense of community solidarity. “We see our clients at Trader Joe’s or Safeway, so we feel very much connected. Add to that the ‘big city’ expertise we deliver, and DPF has the perfect combination for a sophisticated clientele that enjoys the laid back lifestyle of Napa Valley. “I worked in San Francisco for 12 years before I came up here,” says Gerien, “and it’s much more community-driven here. In a San Francisco office, for example, you might be from Palo Alto, working with someone from Walnut Creek. So, while you work in the same office, there’s really not a sense of community like we have here, where everybody lives in the area.”
While the firm has several major practice areas, including alcohol beverage, business and corporate, land use, labor and employment, civil litigation, intellectual property, real property, as well as estate planning and probate, it’s not a firm where all the attorneys practice in all areas. Rather, each attorney has specialized expertise and focuses on one of these specific practice areas, says Gerien, whose specialty is intellectual property dealing mostly in trademarks, copyright and unfair competition, and who’s been called by the Wine Industry Business Journal “one of the most knowledgeable wine trademark-protection attorneys in the nation and the world.” He says there’s not a great demand for patent work in the area, but, with the wine industry, there’s a huge demand for trademark work. “I’d like to build in those areas,” he says.
Dickenson, Peatman and Fogarty has been in business for almost 50 years, “and there’s a reason for that,” says Gerien. He credits the firm’s founders, who, he says, have been great caretakers and will eventually hand it over to the “middle generation,” of which he, at age 44, is one. Continuity is important to both the firm and its client base. “It’s very important to bring up associates who are going to take over the practice,” he says. “You need to build an associate base of people who want to be here and grow with the firm to develop the sort of commitment to our employees and to our firm that benefits our clients.”
He says DPF really strives to be client-oriented and give good service, working closely with clients and in the community. One of the ways the firm does that is by working in local organizations. Gerien, for example, is on the board of the diRosa Preserve, a nonprofit museum and open space area for the arts. Other members of the firm serve on the boards of Vine Trail and other organizations in Napa as well as being active in legal aid. “We have a lot of different interests,” he says. All of these serve to strengthen the primary focus of the firm, which is to provide world-class legal services to the local communities of Napa, and now also Santa Rosa, in a way that’s comfortable, reliable and responsive.
