I’ve been representing clients in California’s cannabis industry since 2018. Our firm has been representing businesses in the space for many years before that, in states with more mature licensing programs. One of the most common mistakes we see in new cannabis markets is businesses that rely too much on federal legalization happening. For example,
One of the best insurance policies a cannabis business can get is a written contract. Paying a lawyer a little bit up front can save hundreds of thousands when things go south. A lot of folks in the cannabis industry are still doing deals on a handshake basis (you can see some of our older
Cannabis businesses use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) constantly. This may be due to a series of factors, or some combination thereof: 1) the relative hardship of acquiring and protecting intellectual property over marijuana-related processes and products, today and historically; 2) a general modus operandi of “close to the vest” dealings in an industry that historically was
The internet is littered with writings on the relative merits of corporate forms and tax elections for cannabis businesses. Even the best of these articles are as dull as ditchwater, because the topic is tax. Most of the authors mention subchapter S taxation at some point, and the showier ones may even dredge up cannabis
Most cannabis companies are not wound up properly; some cannabis companies (and their owners) suffer repercussions for this; and all cannabis companies (and their owners, and investors!) are well served by an orderly windup. This blog post will cover some basics on the cannabis business windup process. First, though, I want to address a point
It’s pretty easy to write about everything that’s going wrong in today’s cannabis industry. Today, I want to change gears and talk about some of the strategies we’ve seen work for distressed cannabis businesses in the past. Yes, some of these strategies may seem obvious at first. But pulling them off correctly – especially in
In case you missed it, professional players on teams in the National Basketball Association are getting a free and clear opportunity to take advantage of the cannabis industry through cannabis investments. As a former D-1 college athlete, I’m glad to see the NBA not only remove cannabis from its list of banned substances but also
As a corporate attorney, one of the most common errors I see is failure to implement even basic corporate governance practices. This can lead to astoundingly bad places in certain circumstances. But even when it doesn’t, it is often costly to reconstruct past corporate actions. And that cost can be defrayed relatively easily. One way
Cannabis companies move a million miles an hour. Many cannabis companies don’t spend nearly enough time focusing on the “basics,” such as corporate governance and getting things in writing (for more posts on why handshake deals are bad, see articles linked at the bottom of this post). Another area where many cannabis businesses need some
We’ve written a lot recently about how cannabis companies are falling on tough economic times in this roiling economy. When times get lean, cannabis companies need to innovate and get more competitive with services and product offerings. This is in addition to consolidation, cost cutting, and going after third parties that owe you money. One
