Cannabis and Hemp

The Green Rush is over. There is no easy money in cannabis anymore (if there ever was). Until we see comprehensive legalization of cannabis at the federal level, including intellectual property, banking and bankruptcy reform, established cannabis licensees are faced with a variety of business structuring (and restructuring) challenges. Encore Law Group specializes in bespoke transactions, regulatory compliance and dispute resolution for small to medium-sized enterprises.

Key Services and Expertise:

  • Business planning and due diligence
  • Entity selection and formation
  • Investor and lender negotiations
  • Social equity applicant (SEA) partnering transactions
  • Venture capital finance and private placements
  • Securities issuance and filings
  • Real estate transactions
  • Facility construction and remodeling
  • Procurement and protection of genetics and germplasm 
  • Intellectual property registration, protection, maintenance and licensing (domestic and international) for trademarks, trade secrets and patents 
  • Operational support, including management services agreements (MSAs), logistics and distribution arrangements
  • Sales and advertising, including Internet issues and technology platform agreements
  • Compliance with state and federal regulations
  • Employment agreements and disputes
  • Tax-motivated transactions and structuring
  • Mergers, acquisitions and partner buyouts
  • Dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration
  • Confidential investigations
  • Transactions in and out of receivership or bankruptcy

We have expertise representing cannabis service providers, design professionals, and other goods and services providers, including fertilizer and equipment manufacturers, distributors and operations consultants.

We are well-versed in all manner of consumer-packaged goods business relating to hemp and CBD (and any other cannabinoid besides Δ9 THC). If you can package it, we’ll help you sell it.

The next frontier is psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs. While the laws around these substances are scant, Encore closely monitors all developments in the area. Although it’s too soon to tell, we expect the decriminalization of microdosed psychedelics to follow the precedents set by medical cannabis reform. Stay tuned; we live in interesting times.

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