Practice areas: Criminal defense and Cannabis Law

We represent clients across a full spectrum of cannabis business issues, from formation of the entity, preparing business plans, license applications, community impact statements, waste management and regulatory plans, to banking, employment, and government advocacy. We have advised and consulted for hemp and cannabis cultivators, processors, professionals and investors on a number of licensing, business, regulatory, and complex criminal issues, bringing our knowledge of the industry and regulatory landscape, along with our talent and experience in state and federal criminal cannabis law, to bear in aiding our cannabis-industry clients to establish economically feasible, legally compliant business models that achieve their end goals.

We represent a variety of clients in their cannabis license application process, as the momentum towards federal marijuana legalization increases and various states enact their own adult-use and medical cannabis cultivation, processing, distribution, sale and delivery laws. We identify and amplify our client's strengths, while also bridging any experiential or other gaps that we may uncover, so that our clients have the greatest change of succeeding on the merits of their cannabis license applications..     

Legal adult-use and medical cannabis businesses face a number of risks, and often conflicting licensing, regulatory, and compliance issues, given the patchwork of federal illegality and state-specific legalization laws. We represent entities in the legal cannabis market, from small multi-state operators (MSOs) to traditional, legacy market and social equity license applicants, in a broad variety of  matters. The Office has significant experience with cannabis industry operators, the creation of regulatory compliance programs, conduct of employee due diligence, negotiating with various enforcement authorities and regulators, and representing clients in high-stakes criminal cannabis matters and trials.