HIGHLY regulated industries

We represent clients who operate businesses in highly regulated industries, including cannabis, and wine production and sales.

We are experts in permitting, licensing, compliance and interfacing with government agencies and regulators. We also are adept at resolving contractual and other business disputes that tend to arise in these industries. 

Our clients include California vintners and wine distributors who have been in business for many decades, as well as cannabis operators who entered the commercial cannabis market when California first began issuing commercial license applications in 2018.

dual local / state permitting

Given the dual local/state permitting structure of legalized cannabis, we have represented clients throughout California, from Humboldt to San Diego.

In turn, we have developed a unique skillset and knowledge base to effectively represent clients seeking government approvals and responding to enforcement actions statewide. 

Our vast experience representing clients’ interests with government positions us to effectively assist clients pioneering the legalization and regulation of psychedelic plants and fungi for the treatment of mental health disorders, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and addiction.

Therapeutic substances such as Psilocybin are in quickly emerging as healthier alternatives to prescription drugs.

In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration named psilocybin a “breakthrough therapy” and it has been decriminalized in several states. Examples include Oregon voters approving the establishment of a regulated psilocybin therapy system and Maryland’s $1 million fund to study alternative treatments, including psychedelics, for PTSD and traumatic brain injury.

In California, UC Berkeley established the Center for the Science of Psychedelics in 2020 and several California cities have decriminalized Psilocybin. The California Legislature is continuing to review pathways toward decriminalization, much in the way it did with cannabis decades ago. It appears likely that several states will start to formally regulate the medical use of psychedelics in the coming years, and we expect to use our expertise to assist in this important transition.