Joe Rogoway​

Joe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Rogoway Law Group where he heads the firm’s regulatory compliance practice and also assists his clients with disputes, labor and employment matters, and enforcement actions. His substantial litigation experience includes conducting dozens of jury, bench, and administrative trials. He has argued cases before the California Court of Appeal, and has represented clients in numerous mediations and arbitrations.

Joe’s passion for the wine industry comes from his personal experience in developing, managing, and working his Sonoma County vineyard and custom crush winemaking. To Joe, the legal issues involved in licensing, commercial agreements, labeling requirements, and geographic indicators are not abstract and the legal work he does for his wine industry clients is informed by these experiences outside of the office.

His long-time advocacy in the cannabis industry arose out of the sports injuries he received while playing Division 1 football at Los Alamitos and seeing the injustice of criminalizing medicine that can be more effective than other, often over-prescribed, prescription medications. In 2001, while he was an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Joe studied abroad at Leiden University, the Netherlands. In 2003, while in law school at the University of San Francisco, Joe studied abroad at Pazmany University in Budapest and Charles University in Prague. During law school, Joe was a member of the Wine Law Society which included the study of Tokaji and other Hungarian wines while in Budapest.

In 2004, Joe clerked at Americans for Safe Access where he assisted the nonprofit in advocating for patients, caregivers, collectives, and cooperatives. From 2006 – 2008, he started working at the Mendocino County Public Defender’s office where he represented many accused growers and sellers charged with cannabis related crimes. This continued during Joe’s tenure at the Sonoma County Public Defender’s office from 2008-2011 and through his founding of the firm that became Rogoway Law Group, P.C.

Joe’s policy work includes representing winegrowers to petition the TTB for AVA rulemaking as well as being a co-author and co-proponent of several state ballot initiatives to legalize cannabis. His pro bono efforts include assisting families who have disabled children that have been prevented from accessing education because of their medical cannabis use, working with social equity applicants to avail themselves of the benefits of cannabis legalization, and in working with industry trade associations seeking better local regulations.