Alicia Cronbach is the founder of Cronbach Law Group PC, a Napa, California law firm specializing in alcohol beverage law and winery transactions. With more than 20 years of experience in the wine industry — including general counsel roles at major wine companies — she guides wineries, law firms, brokers, and bankers through the complex maze of permitting, licensing, due diligence, and regulatory integration. She is also a faculty member at Sonoma State University and Napa Valley College, teaching wine legal and regulatory issues. Her firm's tagline says it simply: "Winery transactions are complicated. Let us be your guide."
I asked Alicia what led her to start her own firm.
"I'm not an entrepreneur," she told me. "I don't want to go — no, that's not me. That's what I kept saying."
The idea built slowly, over about a decade. During a major M&A transaction early in her career, she went looking for outside counsel who specialized in the regulatory side of winery deals. Firm after firm told her the same thing: that sounds really fun, but we don't have time for that.
"I did it internally," she said. "And as the dust settled, I went back to those law firms and said, but why don't you do this? The consistent theme was: the projects are fun, but that's not a full-time book of business."
"Just because no one else is doing it doesn't mean that I shouldn't try."
She launched Cronbach Law Group in 2019 with Sarah Spiller, her longtime colleague. The firm started with a clear model — project-based work, helping clients build the playbook — and then adapted when clients pushed the playbook back across the table and asked them to execute it too.
Building the team has been one of the most intentional parts of the work. Alicia looks for people who are wired for complexity — the kind of person who color-codes their post-its and coordinates the food at the family reunion.
"Do you have an obsession with color-coded post-its? Are you the person who always coordinates the food at the family reunion?"
Those are the people who thrive here. She describes her team as "corporate refugees" — people who came from environments where asking questions was risky, where ideas got taken, where speaking up felt dangerous. Part of her job as a leader is helping them relax into a culture where none of that is true.
"Walking the talk, big time," she said. "If I'm going to give my team grief for trying to work sick, that means if I'm sick, I shouldn't work either."
When I asked what she'd want other founders to take from her story, she came back to confidence.
"Finding confidence in your ideas and finding the path that works best for you may not look like your best friend from law school's path. It may not look like what your professors told you it would. And that's okay."
Cronbach Law Group is now in its seventh year, serving wineries, law firms, brokers, and bankers across the country.
Are you a winery, law firm, broker, or banker navigating alcohol beverage law or a winery transaction? Connect with Alicia (Herndon) Cronbach and check out Cronbach Law Group PC.