Law360 has named Dentons’ Cannabis sector group the 2024 Cannabis Practice Group of the Year. Dentons received this recognition for its leading global cannabis practice, which offers broad geographic and substantive support for clients in or impacted by the cannabis and hemp industries. The Dentons cannabis sector group has worked on high profile transactional and regulatory matters, provided innovative legal solutions for clients, and has been leaders in advocacy and thought leadership.

During the past year, Dentons’ achievements for our cannabis industry clients included:

• Closing a series of acquisitions, totaling more than $800 million, to substantially expand a client’s US platform.
• Providing counsel on state regulatory, structuring and public exchange considerations for a Canadian company’s interest in two US cannabis companies, through which, upon a legalization trigger event, the Canadian company may become a majority owner in the two companies.
• Selling a multistate cannabis company to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), including, restructuring the client’s holdings and debt and securing all required state and local approvals. Dentons has been on the forefront of this work, representing three of the first six cannabis companies to initiate ESOP transactions.
• Providing legal opinions and disclosures to help mitigate section 280E tax exposure.
• Leading federal lobbying efforts related to federal and state cannabis and hemp legalization, including the cannabis rescheduling process and proposed amendments to the SAFER Banking Act.
• Launched the political coalition One Hemp (with founding members Charlotte’s Webb, Kamira, Open Book Extracts, Wana Brands and Wyld) to propose federal legislation to regulate hemp-derived products and advocate for regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.
• Helping the iconic Swisher brand enter the cannabis space.