Cannabis

EXPERT LEGAL ADVICE FOR A CHANGING INDUSTRY

Prince Lobel has been an industry leader in advising cannabis businesses for over a decade. Our attorneys are well-versed in the ever changing and complex state and federal laws governing cannabis. Our clients include licensed entities such as dispensaries, cultivators, manufacturers, and delivery companies, and related entities such as secured and mezzanine lenders, investors software and tech developers, equipment providers, and property owners. We have advised clients in Massachusetts, New York, Missouri, Georgia Florida, California, Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Under the leadership of Mike Ross and Max Riffin, our Boston office represented the first cannabis business to open in Boston, the first business to convert from a non-profit entity, the first dispensary to be licensed for Adult Use, and the first law firm to file a change of control application with the Cannabis Control Commission. Prince Lobel has been the preeminent law firm representing the buyer or seller in most of the biggest transactions in Massachusetts.

We provide sophisticated strategic advice and representation in the cannabis space to clients in connection with a wide variety of matters, including:

Negotiating mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions, including, without limitation, transfers of ownership and control with both national or international investors or acquirors
Navigating the state licensing process and the local municipal entitlement process for the siting of marijuana facilities (including obtaining letters of support or non-opposition, zoning approvals, and other permits)
Structuring, forming and maintaining the organization and entities that best serve a marijuana business
Negotiating secured debt and mezzanine funding agreements
Assisting with capital raises, including preparing private placement memoranda and associated equity or debt investment instruments
Advising debtors, secured creditors, and other parties in interest in receiverships, insolvency proceedings, workouts, and restructurings
Negotiating the complex lease and purchase and sale agreements for commercial real estate in this specialized industry
Structuring banking relationships
Developing and implementing tax strategies

Prince Lobel also assists the economically disadvantaged to open, operate, and fund their businesses; we actively represent social equity applicants and Economic Empowerment Applicants in their filings with the Cannabis Control Commission, and equity Applicants in Boston, Cambridge, and surrounding Massachusetts cities. We have represented these applicants and their investors in achieving the difficult balance of allowing the investors to retain their rights to realized gains, while assuring the Equity Applicants retain the interests required to maintain that status. Recently the firm has provided free assistance to those seeking to complete applications for those seeking to be qualified under the Massachusetts Social Equity Program (SEP) and the Certified Economic Empowerment Priority Program.

The firm’s dedication to social equity and providing representation to those financially challenged is equally strong in New York where we represent and have provided assistance and guidance to a significant number of Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) applicants as well as other aspiring market entrants and operators.

Prince Lobel has also developed unparalleled relationships with a network of other professionals that service the legal cannabis industry, including banking institutions, lenders, accounting firms, architects, engineers, insurance carriers, real estate developers, and real estate brokers and appraisers. This combination of strong partnerships and in-depth legal expertise makes Prince Lobel uniquely equipped to serve our clients’ cannabis business-related needs.

Prince Lobel attorneys also provide expert legal advice in other areas that are not cannabis specific, such as: