Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Cannabis
-
January 30, 2024
Pot Fraud Case Costs Businessman $17M Instead Of $100K
A businessman convicted of bank fraud for his role in helping a California cannabis company covertly process payments must pay the government $17 million — all of the money he allegedly earned from the scheme — according to a ruling issued by the same New York federal judge who once called the amount "excessive."
-
January 30, 2024
Senate Dems Urge DOJ To Fully Decriminalize Marijuana
A coalition of Democratic U.S. senators are urging the U.S. Department of Justice to remove marijuana from the scope of the federal Controlled Substances Act entirely instead of merely loosening restrictions on the drug, as federal health regulators had advised last year.
-
January 30, 2024
Cannabis Co. Says Neighbor's Fire Caused $5M In Damages
The owner of a California cannabis company claimed in California state court that a real estate investment firm's entity is liable for more than $5.1 million in damages caused by a March 2021 fire.
-
January 30, 2024
Haynes Boone IP Partner Rejoins Alston & Bird In LA
Alston & Bird LLP has rehired a Haynes and Boone LLP partner to its Los Angeles intellectual property practice after she worked for years in private practice and as in-house counsel at United Airlines and Toyota Motor and advised a cannabis company, Alston & Bird announced Tuesday.
-
January 30, 2024
Cannabis Co. TerrAscend Accused Of Retaliation
A woman says she was hired by a cannabis company that was later acquired by TerrAscend Corp. around the time she developed a chronic medical condition, only to be fired after requesting accommodations, a Michigan federal lawsuit contends.
-
January 29, 2024
Va. Tells 4th Circ. Hemp Law Not Preempted By Farm Bill
The state of Virginia told the Fourth Circuit on Friday that a lower court was correct to deny hemp companies' bid for an injunction blocking the state's ban on intoxicating hemp products, saying the federal farm bill legalizing hemp empowered states to enact their own rules.
-
January 29, 2024
Md. Pot Regulators' Social Equity Plan Challenged In New Suit
A California attorney who has sued multiple state marijuana regulatory agencies over their licensure programs has now targeted Maryland in a new lawsuit accusing cannabis regulators there of enacting a social equity scheme that unconstitutionally discriminates against out-of-state applicants.
-
January 29, 2024
Ex-Worker Accuses Trulieve Of Racial Discrimination
Florida's largest medical marijuana company, Trulieve, has been accused of racial discrimination in a federal lawsuit filed by a man who claims the company fired him after he complained about his treatment.
-
January 29, 2024
Cannabis Group Of The Year: Vicente LLP
Vicente LLP helped orchestrate the creation of the largest employee-owned cannabis company and assisted in legalizing magic mushroom trips in Colorado, marking major wins in budding industries that face pushback and landing the firm among Law360's 2023 Cannabis Groups of the Year.
-
January 26, 2024
Cannabis Bill Roundup: Federal Housing Bill Gets A New Shot
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill reintroduced legislation to protect access to federal housing for individuals using or selling cannabis in compliance with state programs. Legislators in multiple states pitched proposals to rein in hemp-derived intoxicating products. And in New Hampshire, Hawaii and Mississippi, lawmakers introduced or advanced proposals to legalize cannabis for adult recreational use. Here are some of the major legislative moves in hemp and cannabis policy from the past week.
-
January 26, 2024
NLRB Official Says St. Louis Pot Workers Aren't In Agriculture
Workers who process marijuana at a St. Louis cannabis growing facility aren't National Labor Relations Board-exempt agricultural employees, an NLRB official said in a decision greenlighting facility employees to vote on representation by a United Food and Commercial Workers local.
-
January 26, 2024
CBD Co. Asks Judge To Reject Franchisee's $10M Claims
The owner of the Your CBD Store brand has urged a Georgia federal court to snuff out an arbitration action brought by one of its franchisees seeking as much as $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit that says an oral agreement between the two cannot be arbitrated.
-
January 26, 2024
Jersey City Police Union Joins Suit Over Off-Duty Pot Policy
The Jersey City, New Jersey, police officers' union has voluntarily become a defendant in the city's lawsuit over off-duty use of marijuana by members of the police force, saying some aspects of the case are not fully addressed by the other defendants.
-
February 08, 2024
Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2024 Editorial Boards
Law360 is looking for avid readers of its publications to serve as members of its 2024 editorial advisory boards.
-
January 26, 2024
Cannabis Co. Too Late To Sue Dinsmore Over Late Filing
A Michigan appellate panel ruled Thursday that a cannabis company's suit against Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, alleging the firm missed the deadline to file the company's applications for Illinois cannabis dispensing licenses because it was "too busy" with other clients, was itself filed too late and properly thrown out.
-
January 26, 2024
High Court Asked To Review FDA Flavored E-Cig Denials
Vape maker Magellan Technology Inc. is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's denial of its application to market flavored e-cigarettes, saying there's a circuit split on whether the FDA gave companies proper notice of the criteria it would use.
-
January 26, 2024
Cannabis Group Of The Year: Dentons
The cannabis group at Dentons helped steer Canada-based Canopy Growth Corp.'s entrance into the U.S. marijuana market and shepherded multiple blockbuster deals, including The Parent Co.'s merger with its California neighbor Gold Flora, making the team one of Law360's 2023 Cannabis Groups of the Year.
-
January 25, 2024
Ore. Pot Grower Drops Constitutional Challenge To State Law
An Oregon marijuana wholesaler that sued the state in an effort to overturn a law preventing it from shipping cannabis for sale in other states has dropped its federal lawsuit.
-
January 25, 2024
Colo. Panel Says Order Is Final When Interest Can Be Tallied
A Colorado Court of Appeals panel found Thursday that an order granting prejudgment interest is final and appealable when the exact amount of interest can be easily calculated based on the order, a holding aimed at resolving a question left unanswered by another panel of the court.
-
January 25, 2024
Fraudster To Plead Guilty In $18M Hemp Farm, CBD Scam
A previously convicted fraudster has entered into a plea agreement in California federal court on one count of felony wire fraud for soliciting millions of dollars through false claims that the money was for a hemp farm that didn't exist and for a falsely hyped edible operation.
-
January 25, 2024
Cannabis Group Of The Year: Cozen O'Connor
From helping a cannabis firm relocate from Canada to the U.S., to arranging for cannabis company stock buyouts and lobbying for improved banking laws for cannabis companies, Cozen O'Connor has kept busy in the past year, earning it a place among Law360's 2023 Cannabis Groups of the Year.
-
January 24, 2024
Canadian Court Tosses Data Breach Suit Against Pot Store
A mom-and-pop dispensary can't sue a larger rival chain for allegedly relying on leaked financial information when deciding to open a nearby "predatory" location after an attempt to buy out the dispensary's owners fell through, a Canadian court ruled, calling the $40 million action frivolous and vexatious.
-
January 24, 2024
Bid To Swap Chevron For An Old Standby Raises Doubts
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court debated whether a World War II-era doctrine encouraging courts to strongly consider agency statutory interpretations could replace the court's controversial so-called Chevron doctrine that requires judges to defer to those interpretations if a statute is ambiguous.
-
January 24, 2024
Pot Insurance Suit Belongs In Federal Court, Judge Says
A federal magistrate judge in New Mexico has recommended that a proposed class action over insurance coverage for medical cannabis not be sent back to state court, finding Wednesday that the federal court has jurisdiction to hear the suit against Blue Cross and Blue Shield and other insurers.
-
January 24, 2024
Amyris Says Claim Releases Needed For Post-Ch. 11 Success
Biotechnology company Amyris Inc. told a Delaware bankruptcy judge on Wednesday it needs to eliminate potential shareholder claims in order to emerge from its Chapter 11 case as a successful company.
Expert Analysis
-
Cannabis Considerations In Debt Collection, Credit Reporting
While companies that collect debts arising from cannabis purchases, and consumer reporting agencies that furnish information concerning such debts, may not be governed by consumer protection laws, they should probably act like it by implementing compliance programs that heed state and federal requirements, say Corey Scher and Joshua Horn at Fox Rothschild.
-
Don't Forget Alumni Engagement When Merging Law Firms
Neglecting law firm alumni programs after a merger can sever the deep connections attorneys have with their former firms, but by combining good data management and creating new opportunities to reconnect, firms can make every member in their expanded network of colleagues feel valued, say Clare Roath and Erin Warner at Troutman Pepper.
-
Interstate Cannabis Commerce May Be In Reach, With Caveats
California is the latest state to lay the groundwork for interstate cannabis commerce agreements, which may offer a solution to the overabundance of product in legal adult-use markets and survive constitutional challenges — but even then, obstacles to a national market will remain, say Adam Horowitz and Harry Berezin at Goodwin.
-
Without Stronger Due Diligence, Attys Risk AML Regulation
Amid increasing pressure to mitigate money laundering and terrorism financing risks in gatekeeper professions, the legal industry will need to clarify and strengthen existing client due diligence measures — or risk the federal regulation attorneys have long sought to avoid, says Jeremy Glicksman at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office.
-
Calif. Ruling May Sow Seeds Of Cannabis Patent Precedent
This 4/20, the cannabis industry can celebrate a California federal court’s first-of-its-kind ruling in Gene Pool Technologies v. Coastal Harvest — holding that the illegality doctrine did not bar a patent infringement claim — which may sow the seeds of precedent for enforcing cannabis-related IP rights, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
-
Cannabis Labor Peace Laws Lay Fertile Ground For Unions
State legislatures are increasingly passing cannabis laws that encourage or even mandate labor peace agreements as a condition for licensure, and though open questions remain about the constitutionality of such statutes, unionization efforts are unlikely to slow down, says Peter Murphy at Saul Ewing.
-
Every Lawyer Can Act To Prevent Peer Suicide
Members of the legal industry can help prevent suicide among their colleagues, and better protect their own mental health, by learning the predictors and symptoms of depression among attorneys and knowing when and how to get practical aid to peers in crisis, says Joan Bibelhausen at Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.
-
Building On Successful Judicial Assignment Reform In Texas
Prompt action by the Judicial Conference could curtail judge shopping and improve the efficiency and procedural fairness of the federal courts by implementing random districtwide assignment of cases, which has recently proven successful in Texas patent litigation, says Dabney Carr at Troutman Pepper.
-
Opinion
Ga. Needs To Resolve Cannabis Counsel Confusion
Georgia’s medical cannabis regulator finally adopted rules for low-THC oil last month, but a 2021 ethics ruling prohibits lawyers from advising participants in the state’s legal program and creates a confounding landscape that the state bar and courts must address, say Whitt Steineker and Mason Kruze at Bradley Arant.
-
Opinion
Now Is The Time For Independent Industry Self-Regulation
The high level of trust in business, coupled with the current political and legal landscape, provides an opportunity for companies to play a meaningful role in finding solutions to public policy issues through the exploration of independent industry self-regulation models, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.
-
Using International Arb. To Settle Cannabis Industry Disputes
As cannabis legalization continues in the U.S. and other countries, overseas investors and business owners should consider international arbitration for dispute resolution and assess the enforceability of relevant treaties and arbitration provisions, says Ramsey Schultz at Duane Morris.
-
Do Videoconferences Establish Jurisdiction With Defendants?
What it means to have minimum contacts in a foreign jurisdiction is changing as people become more accustomed to meeting via video, and defendants’ participation in videoconferencing may be used as a sword or a shield in courts’ personal jurisdiction analysis, says Patrick Hickey at Moye White.
-
Opinion
AG's Cannabis Remarks Incongruous With Scheduling Review
Attorney General Merrick Garland’s recent remarks on marijuana policy do not align with the purpose of the scheduling review the president asked him to conduct, and his position would perpetuate the holding pattern that has prevailed for the past decade, says Larry Houck at Hyman Phelps.
-
Opinion
Humanism Should Replace Formalism In The Courts
The worrying tendency for judges to say "it's just the law talking, not me" in American decision writing has coincided with an historic decline in respect for the courts, but this trend can be reversed if courts develop understandable legal standards and justify them in human terms, says Connecticut Superior Court Judge Thomas Moukawsher.
-
Don't Let Client Demands Erode Law Firm Autonomy
As clients increasingly impose requirements for attorney hiring and retention related to diversity and secondment, law firms must remember their ethical duties, as well as broader issues of lawyer development, culture and firm integrity, to maintain their independence while meaningfully responding to social changes, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.