Valerie Pistole sells law firm to Sonoma’s Eric Gullotta

Valerie Pistole, a longtime lawyer in Sonoma Valley, officially turned over her practice to a Sonoma native on Jan. 1.

Pistole approached Eric Gullotta, owner of Gullotta Law Group and lifelong Sonoman, about the deal in the fall, which includes her clients but not her West Napa Street location. (By happenstance, Gullotta’s firm is also located on West Napa Street).

After practicing law for 50 years, Pistole thought 2022 sounded like a solid number to end on. She plans to dance her way through retirement, taking up competitive ballroom, among other hobbies. But before she left, she had to ensure her clients would be in the right hands.

Both Pistole’s firm, Walter and Pistole, and Gullota Law Group specialize in estate planning, which is a main reason why she thought of Gullotta when selling her practice.

“Valerie and (my’s) practices were almost mirror images of each other,” Gullotta said.

Both lawyers have backgrounds in tax law; Gullotta as a former certified public accountant and tax lawyer, and Pistole with a degree in tax law.

The main difference between the two firms is their size. While both are considered small local firms, Pistole’s was about 25% the size of Gullotta’s. Gullotta has two attorneys as well as two paralegals. Pistole was the sole attorney at her firm after her husband, Sonoma’s Assistant City Attorney Jeffrey Walter, left to join Colantuono Highsmith Whatley PC, another firm in recent years.

The local element was important for Pistole when passing her practice along. She first started practice law 50 years ago, and had an office in Napa for her first 20 years. Her Sonoma office opened in 1996.

“When you start thinking about retirement, I was thinking a lot about the clients,” Pistole said. Over the years, she’s accumulated hundreds of them.

Because estate planning often involves an entire family, she has served multiple members of the same family across different generations, and she didn’t want to pass them off to big business.

“A lot of businesses are selling out to big corporations,” Pistole said. “It’s nice to see some businesses are being passed down locally.”

Gullotta’s firm is going on its 14th year of serving the Sonoma community. Before opening his own firm, Gullotta worked at his father’s firm, Richard Gullotta’s CPA Tax Services. Eventually he realized he wanted to do open his own firm that focused on estate planning.

“I love estate planning because you’re solving problems everybody has,” Gullotta said. “Being born here, it’s my goal that we create an honest, ethical, hardworking firm.”

When Pistole initially reached out, she didn’t specify the nature of the meetings, and Gullotta had no idea she was going to offer up her firm. He had been making calls to different firms around town who he’d heard may have been looking to retire.

“I’ve been looking to expand,” Gullotta said. “I’d really like to be the premier firm in the Valley for estate planning.”

After Pistole came and saw the office, she offered him the deal then and there. His firm has all of the qualities she was looking for: local, could absorb her clients, had a good staff and would be around for at least a few more decades.

She noted the similarities in their practices, but she also clocked that Gullotta was a lot more tech savvy, and a bit more casual.

“I would never go to work in jeans and a sweatshirt,” Pistole said. “My clients will have to get used to him wearing shorts.”

But she also noted that his casual nature can be an asset in estate planning, because people can often feel uncomfortable when discussing plans for after the death of a family member.

“You know, he’s such a personable guy. He makes you feel pretty relaxed, which is a good sign,” Pistole said.

Gullotta was thrilled when she offered him her practice, and jumped on the deal. They signed the official contract in September, and Pistole stopped accepting new clients on Sept. 20.

The same month, in another effort to keep his practice local, Gullotta hired Sheala DeMartini, a third-generation Sonoma Valley native, as an attorney at the firm. She interned for him in 2015 as a legal secretary before attending law school at the University of Idaho. She has worked in estate planning in Arizona before returning to Gullotta Law Group, and will sit for the California Bar Exam at the end of February.

Any new clients that reached out to her after that were referred to Gullotta. She has spent the past few months finishing up the work for the clients she took on up until that date, and just has a few loose needs to tie up in the next week or so before she steps away completely.

She has valued the experience of serving her clients in Sonoma. Even though she feels now is the right time to retire, she will miss her clients and her work — an accomplishment she’s commemorated.

Walter, who is also planning on seriously cutting back on work this year, threw her a surprise retirement party with tons of her women friends to celebrate her career. She also tried to meet with as many of her clients as possible to say thanks and let them know about the transition.

“To have somebody say, ‘Gee, I’m really bummed you’re retiring,’ that’s a very reassuring thing,” Pistole said.

Though she’ll no longer be working, many people who know Pistole know that she’s a woman of many interests. Just 10 years ago, she held multiple records in her weight-class for power lifting. Her strongsuit was the deadlift.

She no longer lifts anything over 200 pounds, but she takes ballroom dancing classes with her husband at least six times a week, and danced at a competition in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. It didn’t go well, but she’s not giving up any time soon. She also plays golf, tennis and belongs to three different book clubs, in addition to being active in a number of nonprofits.

Pistole promised herself she would’t commit to any big things for at least six months, so she can focus on enjoying her new found free time, and filling it with her many hobbies.

Gullotta plans to continue making the transition as easy as possible on all of Pistole’s previous clients, and hoped to continue his expansion.

“We’re ready for it, we’ve prepared for it and we want it,” Gullotta said.

Contact the reporter Rebecca Wolff at rebecca.wolff@sonomanews.com.