2025 BEST PRACTICE AWARDS

In April of 2022, Virginia ABC reviewed its existing regulations and made necessary changes to operate more effectively and better serve the authority and licensing community.

LaTonya Hucks-Watkins is the director and senior legal counsel, Office of Legal Counsel.

Best Stakeholder / Legislative Outreach Program

by KRYSTINA SKIBO

In April of 2022, Virginia ABC seized the opportunity to review its existing regulations and make the necessary changes to operate more effectively and better serve the authority and licensing community.

To create a modernized regulatory framework, Virginia ABC engaged external stakeholders within the manufacturer, wholesaler and retail tiers, as well as various education and prevention organizations, state legislators and industry organizations.

Authority representatives from the Board, Bureau of Law Enforcement, Office of Legal Counsel, Community Health and Engagement, marketing and hearings all participated in the review, as well.

“ The extensive review of our regulations helped make them easier to comprehend, and it also made them a lot more accessible,” says LaTonya Hucks-Watkins, director and senior legal counsel, Office of Legal Counsel.“ This review process set a new bar for community involvement. We wanted to cast a net out to anyone who would be acutely impacted by these regulations.”

The review process included monthly meetings with more than 70 participants, those of which included members from all tiers and educational organizations, while several smaller committee meetings focused on reviewing all eight chapters of the Board regulations line by line. These committees removed redundant, outdated regulations and amended or added new regulations to address innovations in the alcohol industry.

When the final revised draft of the regulations was completed in March of 2023, it entered the long and comprehensive state regulatory promulgation process. After multiple reviews by the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Planning and Budget and the Secretariat of Homeland Security and Public Safety, combined with multiple rounds of public comment periods, Virginia ABC incorporated some of the proposed changes.

The final draft was then approved and became effective in February of 2025.

“ We modernized certain regulations, which is helping the laws keep pace with modern-day thinking and technology,” Hucks-Watkins explains.“ For instance, regulations around using images of athletes in alcohol advertising and labeling were updated to reflect current name, image and likeness( NIL) practices for athletes.”

Virginia ABC also increased the schedule of penalties or violations to make that a deterrent for non-compliant behavior, according to Hucks-Watkins. These stiffer penalties aimed to encourage licensees to better understand and follow the state’ s alcohol laws and regulations, keeping public safety front of mind.

Other regulatory structure changes included accommodation for new types of alcohol beverages, additional advertising flexibility and streamlined hearings and appeals processes for administrative hearings before the Board.

Due to the success of this new process, stakeholder engagement is now the standard in how Virginia ABC approaches sweeping regulatory changes in the future.

“ In future reviews, we’ re not making decisions in a bubble,” says Hucks-Watkins.“ We’ re considering the thoughts and feelings of those most impacted by the law.”

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