Cannabis Law

Our team at Messner Reeves has extensive experience navigating the highly regulated landscape of cannabis law.


Whether you are a current cannabis business owner or an individual looking to enter the market, our attorneys provide legal assistance to help navigate the complexities of the industry. Our clients range from those directly involved in the cannabis industry, to affiliated ancillary businesses, to the investors that support the operations and provide services for both producers and sellers.

Our team specializes in a full-range of services, with proven success for clients in the following areas:

Read More

Cannabis businesses are faced with both unique challenges and opportunities, as the legal cannabis landscape evolves so to do these opportunities. Our goal is to assists clients in overcoming these challenges and capitalizing on these opportunities regardless of their role in the industry. Our clients include established, emerging, and start-up companies or all sizes and are representative of all facets of the cannabis industry. Whether operating in single or multi-states our clients are involved in every aspect of cannabis business; from licensed marijuana and hemp operators including cultivation, processing, retail, distribution, manufacturing, and hospitality license holders; to ancillary businesses and service providers such as investors, lenders, financial institutions, equipment manufacturers, and landlords.

Our team’s extensive experience in this industry helps guide clients through the ever-evolving, chaotic, often inconsistent, and constantly shifting state, local and federal landscape governing all aspects of cannabis industry, including hemp, marijuana, CBD, and other cannabinoids. We know all too well that licensure is merely the beginning of the business journey. Drawing on our team’s multi-disciplinary expertise in related areas of law provides our clients with a unique perspective and holistic approach to analyzing legal risks and evaluating business ventures, focusing not only on immediate needs surrounding regulatory issues and compliance regimes, but on long-term comprehensive business strategy and development. We work collaboratively to carefully craft a network to ensure we are in the best position to facilitate, develop and implement creative solutions tailored to our client’s specific needs.

At Messner Reeves, our attorneys are dedicated to ensuring our clients are equipped with the tools and support necessary to drive success in this industry.

Our Clients

  • Dispensaries
  • Cultivation Facilities
  • Infused Products Manufacturers
  • CBD and Hemp Companies
  • Testing Facilities
  • Cannabis Vendors and Service Providers
  • Cannabis Licensing, Marketing, Packaging, Labelling, and/or Branding Companies
  • Cannabis Investors and Lenders
  • Real Estate Holding Companies


Cannabis Law Representative Matters

  • Represented multiple privately held companies and family offices in buy/sell transactions and related due diligence and regulatory compliance, ranging in value from $50,000 – $5,000,000 with varying corporate, regulatory, due diligence and/or local  counsel.
  • Successfully raised $5,000,000 through private capital raise for a CBD startup.
  • Advised clients in all stages of their investment/transaction activities, including structuring business operations, drafting contracts and other major documents, negotiating transactions with appropriate business partners as well coordination of their relationship with government approval authorities.
  • Represented companies of all sizes throughout the corporate life cycle, from formation and financing to the sale of the business. This included drafting governing documents, corporate formation and structuring, operational agreements (e.g., leases; supply/distribution agreements; licensing agreements; services agreements including non-compete provisions, compensation arrangements, and equity plans), debt/equity financing as well as mergers and acquisitions.
  • Assist clients (including multi-state operators) in industry-specific regulatory compliance and complex multi-state compliance strategies, ranging from jurisdiction-specific legislative and regulatory issues to jurisdictional surveys.
  • Draft and advise merit-based applications for clients who successfully obtained licensure in competitive license jurisdiction.
  • Assist clients prepare projects proposals and obtain Cannabis Business Pilot Grant funding from the OEDIT.

Insights

5 Practical Ways Healthcare Companies can Mitigate Litigation Risk

Messner Reeves LLP knows that the risk of litigation is always a concern for healthcare organizations, as companies strive to nimbly adapt to changes in state, local and federal regulations across the industry as well as maintain stringent policies and guidelines protecting employees, patients and the company. Non-compliance with rules of the Health Insurance Portability […]

Las Vegas Partner Candace Herling Recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers

Las Vegas Partner Candace Herling was recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers and we couldn’t be more thrilled to recognize her today. Herling focuses her practice on civil litigation, with an emphasis on healthcare law, specifically serving healthcare entities. With a deep understanding of the challenges of long-term healthcare facilities, Herling has both […]

Partner Katherine Otto Recognized as a Super Lawyer

Congratulations to our Denver & New York City Partner Katherine Otto for being recognized as a Super Lawyer. As a trial attorney, Otto’s practice is dedicated to professional malpractice litigation and defense of licensure before state licensing boards. She has represented every level of healthcare licensure across multiple disciplines, including medical, chiropractic, dental, podiatry, mental […]

Three New Attorneys Join Messner Reeves in September

Fall has brought Messner Reeves new wins, monumental growth and new talent. Read below to get to know our new attorneys a little better.  Alyson Jaen  Alyson joins the Messner Reeves team as an associate in our Denver office. Alyson’s specialties lie in cannabis law, licensing and regulatory compliance in addition to general corporate and […]

Contact Us

Name(Required)
Address(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Find your Cannabis Law Attorney

Alex Beltz

Partner
Greenwood Village

Phone: 303.623.1800
Email: abeltz@messner.com

Image of Attorney Jaen

Alyson Jaen

Of Counsel
Denver

Phone: 303.454.2156
Email: ajaen@messner.com

Benjamin Tietgen

Partner
Phoenix

Phone: 602.457.5081
Email: btietgen@messner.com

Lawrence Balanovsky

Lawrence Balanovsky

Associate
Las Vegas

Phone: 702.339.9623
Email: lbalanovsky@messner.com

Rachel Farr

Partner
Denver

Phone: 303.623.4743
Email: rfarr@messner.com

Learn More About Our Capabilities

We’ve built a team we are proud of.
Learn how we’ve grown over the past 25 years.

Footer Logo

Messner Reeves LLP
1550 Wewatta St. Suite 710
Denver, CO 80202
Phone: (303) 623-1800.