Jonathan is chair of Harris Sliwoski’s corporate practice group, where he helps public and private companies with international and domestic business transactions. His clientele includes companies from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Jonathan has worked and consulted in the U.S., Asia, and South America and is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese.
He is an emerging blockchain legal expert and enjoys developing international legal strategies with promising web3 projects.
We’ve written regularly about the plight of cannabis businesses not being able to secure traditional lending (and other financial services) from major, federally regulated institutions. In this post, we dive deeper into a promising federally regulated equity offering as an alternative funding means: Rule 504 under Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Regulation D. Why aren’t
In April 2022, new Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) cannabis pesticide testing final rules took effect. Under the rules, cannabis flower and intermediate products must undergo contaminant testing. The rationale for the is consumer safety – which seems like a legitimate concern given that recreational use cannabis producers were previously not required to test
Many cannabis handshake deals result in the parties forming an inadvertent cannabis partnership. The words “partnership” and “joint venture” are often thrown around casually. Many early stage cannabis entrepreneurs know they want to do some type of business venture, often with a business partner, but they often do not know why or how to avoid
Cannabis companies are largely behind the curve in Web3, but in the past few months some top cannabis companies have emerged in the Web3 ecosystem to join the old guard. The connection between cannabis and Web3 may not be apparent at first glance, but both industries are relatively nascent, semi-regulated, and attracting some of the
We work with international cannabis companies that operate in the U.S., and we regularly field inquiries from others who want to enter the U.S. market. Some are already selling into the U.S. market through an intermediary like a broker or a sales agent. In the United States, there are four main ways to enter the
Previously we wrote about equity compensation for cannabis employees from the perspective of companies. We have been dealing with more and more companies adding equity to their overall compensation scheme, so now is a good time to revisit it from the employee perspective. For an overview of the types of equity compensation available, see here.
I wrote recently about cannabis NFTs (see here) and tokenization of cannabis assets (see here). This post covers cannabis DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) within the industry space (“DAO” is pronounced like “dow”). Web3: cannabis DAOs, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and smart contracts If you have been paying attention, you know at least something about Bitcoin, which is
Since launching our Web3 practice group, we have been getting steady inquiries regarding cannabis and web3 crossover. In this post, I focus on the tokenization of cannabis business assets, which often occurs through ICOs (initial coin offerings). This is currently an unsettled area of law in the U.S., and we do not recommend trying to
Every cannabis company has been asking lately how they can start making money from cannabis NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Many of these companies know that NFTs are part of the greater Web3 movement that feels somewhat familiar, especially to marijuana companies. Web3 is in large measure a counterculture movement that pushes back against large institutions that
I spend a lot of time with business owners discussing their cannabis business value. Often, they come to me when they realize they have a problem with their current or former business partner. We all like to assume our business relationships will continue indefinitely as the venture increases in value and the owners see eye-to-eye
