With over 400 lawyers and other professionals in 14 offices throughout the United States, Dykema provides comprehensive transactional, litigation, government policy, and other legal services to clients of all sizes – from global Fortune 100 companies to middle-market companies and new start-ups – across a myriad of industries.  Dykema maintains leading national vertical industry practices with substantial depth and experience, including financial institutions, automotive, energy and electric distribution, and pharmaceutical/medical devices.  Dykema’s national practice areas include: consumer financial services, regulatory and compliance, litigation and arbitration, bankruptcy and restructuring, corporate finance, employee benefits, employment, environmental, government policy, health care, intellectual property, real estate, and taxation and estates.  For more information, visit dykema.com.

Cannabis Law Practice

Dykema is a “go-to” firm for the full spectrum of legal and policy matters affecting the cannabis industry. Dykema attorneys and lobbyists have been working on matters relating to the cannabis sector for more than a decade, long before we officially launched our Cannabis Law practice in 2016.  As a full-service firm representing many businesses in heavily regulated industries, Dykema is exceptionally well positioned to serve clients on cannabis-related matters. Dykema is widely admired for the quality of its work in practices such as licensing and regulatory, corporate and transactional matters, financial institutions, real estate, land use and zoning, tax, lobbying, political and policy, intellectual property, labor and employment, privacy and data security and food and beverage. Our Cannabis Law team includes members from each of these areas, in our offices throughout the United States.

Our work for clients involved in the business of growing, manufacturing, and selling  cannabis and cannabis products is wide-ranging. It includes matters related to state and local licensing and regulatory compliance; mergers and acquisitions; real estate; capital raising and financing transactions; taxation; branding; and payments and banking matters. Many of these issues also affect clients not directly involved in cannabis businesses, but that engage in one or more ways with such businesses. In this regard, we advise entities such as financial institutions, commercial landlords, and lenders.

The cannabis industry presents exciting opportunities for established businesses as well as startups, as states and tribal governments have moved rapidly to authorize and regulate the cultivation, consumption and sale of cannabis for medical and/or recreational purposes. Yet, in particular, federal law remains a barrier.  Apart from federal illegality, the constraints of federal law dramatically affect taxation of cannabis businesses and also impact financial institutions’ ability to serve customers in the cannabis space.   Nevertheless, we foresee opportunities as well as challenges in this space, and have a top-flight team of professionals ready to help our clients achieve their business objectives.