Cannabis Law

The cannabis industry presents novel challenges. Business is booming, but market participants face unrivaled uncertainty and an evolving, complicated landscape of regulatory and legal issues. 

Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Cannabis Law attorneys are fully conversant with rapidly changing laws that govern the introduction of medical and recreational marijuana into more states across our country, the addition of hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) consumer products into the retail space, and the de-scheduling of industrial hemp commodities that are now set to flourish in the U.S. marketplace. These new products present numerous opportunities to companies in nearly every industry; they also present challenging liability concerns at every turn—from contracting through litigation. 

Shook’s stature as a predominant international products liability firm means that these concerns are directly in our wheelhouse. We are one of the few firms positioned to help answer the needs of national and international corporations, not only state-based manufacturers and retailers, as they navigate conflicts between state laws and the prohibition on cannabis under federal law. The clients who have retained us in this space include some of the largest retailers in the world, as well as, pharmaceutical, consumer and personal care product, and food, beverage and alcohol manufacturers.

Increasingly, global companies are facing difficult business decisions related to the patchwork legalization of medical and recreational marijuana across several U.S. states and Canada; the regulatory uncertainty around the scientific claims of CBD oil and the disparate treatment among states and governmental agencies; and the complications that arise during the interstate sale and transport of industrial hemp in the absence of a federal framework. To this end, Shook has worked with clients to think about their risk from multiple different angles: indemnity, insurance, regulatory, litigation and market-specific business risks. Our attorneys have reviewed websites, social media, and other market representations to advise whether a client may be harmed by claims made by a business partner in its marketing. We have also drawn on our vast experience counseling clients on product labeling and compliance with standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as our continued success representing companies in product liability, product recalls, business disputes and intellectual property cases. 

For more than half a century, Shook has been the leader in guiding the world’s largest pharmaceutical, tobacco, alcohol, food and beverage producers through ever-changing regulatory and sociological scenarios that have presented the most challenging of legal obstacles to our clients. Shook’s attorneys already have real-world experience in the plethora of legal questions and consequences that arise when a novel product is made readily available for public consumption. This deep background of specific experience and success is why our clients choose Shook over other firms to handle cannabis law matters.