Debra Borchardt
In these trying times, it’s always good to have an excellent lawyer on your side. A strong contract goes a long way towards protecting your interests and if you find yourself in a dispute, you certainly want someone who understands your business and can work with cannabis companies.
Green Market Report compiled this list with assistance from the Cannabis Law Report. We separated the list into two categories: cannabis only legal firms and large cannabis divisions within larger firms. We put them in alphabetical order and there is no ranking.
Also, no free legal advice was given to get on this list nor did anyone pay to be included.
Cannabis Only
Clark Howell (California) – “Women-owned and steered, we know what it’s like to chart your own course.” Led by attorney’s Ariel Clark and Nicole Howell, this firm handles corporate, regulatory, supply chain, commercial real estate, hemp & hemp products, and emerging medicines. They work with start-ups, brands & operators, investors, and ancillary service providers. The group also publishes the Green Frontier Bulletin.
Green Light Law Group (Oregon) – Green Light Law Group is a Portland-based firm focused on providing legal solutions to the cannabis industry. We service our clients’ needs in Oregon, Washington, California, New York, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Florida and Texas. The company’s attorneys have extensive experience and in-depth operational knowledge of the marijuana and hemp industries. Green Light is positioned to provide legal services and counseling for new entrepreneurs, financiers, and established companies.
Hoban Law (Colorado) – Hoban Law Group is the first U.S. based law firm to expand its cannabis industry services across the globe with attorneys in the European Union, Latin America, and beyond. With these resources, HLG builds out client portfolios within the global cannabis economy. As a global Cannabusiness Leader since 2009, HLG has been providing professional services to the cannabis industry, which is comprised of the international hemp and regulated marijuana marketplace. The company’s attorneys are experts in marijuana law, hemp law, and corporate cannabis law.
McAllister Garfield (Colorado) – McAllister Garfield, P.C. is a full-service law firm that pioneers legal strategies and services for the marijuana industry. Beginning with the very first marijuana businesses that emerged in 2009, the firm has represented hundreds of medical and recreational dispensaries, grows, infused-product manufacturers, and testing laboratories. The company currently represents some of the leading marijuana companies in Colorado and nationwide and represents a large number of ancillary and related businesses; including, lenders, investors, landlords, social media companies, trim companies, consultants, vendors, inventors, and packaging companies.
Vicente Sederberg LLP (Colorado) – Vicente Sederberg is not just a law firm that decided to jump into the cannabis space. It is solely a cannabis law firm and has been at the leading edge of cannabis law and policy since the inception of the regulated cannabis industry. VS was founded in 2010 and was just a handful of employees working out of a tiny office suite in Denver. Today, the firm has more than 100 full-time employees, including more than 40 attorneys, working out of offices in Boston, Denver, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, and New York. The company also maintains strategic relationships with a number of leading firms around the U.S. and across the globe that specialize in areas of the law that are critical to cannabis clients. VS offers a full suite of services for all types of plant-touching marijuana and hemp businesses (cultivators, retailers, extractors, product manufacturers, distributors, and testing labs), ancillary businesses, investors, trade associations, and governmental bodies.
Key Cannabis Focus
Fox Rothschild has grown to a 950-lawyer national law firm with 27 offices. Fox Rothschild’s Cannabis Litigation team has vast experience advising and representing highly regulated businesses within the constantly evolving matrix of federal, state and local compliance laws. It represents both public and privately-held cannabis companies and industry investors in bet-the-company litigation, governmental proceedings, and appeals. The firm’s crosscutting capabilities also support cannabis industry clients in investor and shareholder disputes, securities litigation, corporate mismanagement claims, patent, trademark and copyright litigation, zoning challenges and licensing disputes.
Greenspoon Marder – Among the first national law firms to establish a dedicated Cannabis Practice Group, Greenspoon Marder is at the forefront of this exciting and rapidly growing industry. The firm’s team helps cultivators, retailers, product manufacturers, distributors, and testing facilities, as well as ancillary industry businesses and investors. With over 30 attorneys focused on cannabis, medical marijuana and hemp sectors, the company’s Cannabis Practice advises clients from early formation through an exit. We take a creative and proactive approach to the practice of law, enabling our clients to take advantage of the emerging legal developments and industry trends.
Harris Bricken – Since 2010, this firm has been helping businesses navigate rapidly evolving cannabis regulation and policy. The cannabis lawyers in California, Oregon and Washington help cannabis businesses with their corporate legal matters involving company formation and structuring, transactional agreements, IP, corporate governance, taxation, licensing, and the acquisition and leasing of real property. For those beyond their jurisdictions, they offer comprehensive advice and analyses of current industry developments on their blog, Canna Law Blog. The firm has nearly a decade of multi-state experience in the nation’s fastest-growing medical and recreational cannabis markets.
Rose Law Group – The cannabis industry team at Rose Law Group pc has been providing comprehensive legal advice, direction and assistance to individuals and companies in the cannabis industry in regards to Title 9, Chapter 17, of the Arizona Department of Health Services Medical Marijuana Program and A.R.S. § 36-2801. The firm has industry-specific knowledge and experience in every aspect of the legal, administrative, regulatory and business issues facing those in the medical and adult-use cannabis industries.
Up & Coming
Duane Morris – Duane Morris attorneys represent businesses and individuals at every level of the cannabis supply chain. Our clients include state-licensed adult-use marijuana, medical marijuana, and hemp cultivators, processors, distributors and dispensaries, whether vertically integrated or operating as standalone businesses, as well as investors in those businesses. The firm also represents the full range of business vendors that supply their products and services to the cannabis industry, such as raw materials, technology, advertising, social media, consumption products, and security companies.
Hiller PC – Hiller is best known for its federal cannabis lawsuit team – co-counsel Michael Hiller, Lauren Rudick, Joseph Bondy, and David Holland who filed a complaint in September 2017 to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York with regards to twelve-year-old Alexis Bortell. The lawyers – who are all members of the New York Cannabis Bar Association – are working on the case pro bono in hopes of winning a watershed decision descheduling marijuana under federal law. The case was dismissed but then reinstated in May 2019.
