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Benesch

Chair, Cannabis Industry Group

Bryna counsels companies in established and emerging industries at all stages of development. She is widely known for effectively navigating the cutting-edge legal issues present in the fast-growing cannabis industry. Her clients range from growers, distributors, product manufacturers and ancillary businesses to outside investors and traditional companies impacted by cannabis laws. Bryna also advises on issues of regulatory compliance; risk avoidance; interplay between state and federal law; contracts and licensing; advertising and product packaging; and intellectual property. 

Bryna is also a highly experienced litigator, zealously advocating for her clients in federal and state courts at both the trial court and appellate levels. Past representations include prominent domestic and foreign food, beverage, pharmaceutical, entertainment, advertising and consumer product companies. Bryna was recognized for her legal acumen in 2013 by the National Law Journal, which named her as one of Chicago’s “40 Under 40,” and she has been named an Illinois “Super Lawyer” or “Rising Star” since 2010. In the spring of 2016, she taught Illinois’ first cannabis law course at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Rudick Law Group, PLLC

Attorney

As a cannabis attorney, Jessica Gonzalez assists cannabis clients navigate the legal cannabis and hemp industry in the tristate area. She has counseled start up and medium sized cannabis/CBD companies on various matters, including corporate entity set-up, state and local compliance, private offering documents and applications for state cannabis licenses. Jessica also counsels corporate and individual clients on intellectual property procurement, prosecution, protection and enforcement for domestic and international trademarks. As cannabis advocate, Jessica has presented on both the municipal and state level on topics such as social justice/social equity, IP protection, cannabis legislation, state and federal banking and state cannabis licensing.

Rudick Law Group, PLLC

Managing Principal

Lauren previously co-founded of Hiller, PC's cannabis law practice. What started as a
passion project in patient rights during a brief residency in California, Lauren has become
one of the Nation’s preeminent cannabis attorneys. Her practice is centered upon the
representation of start-up organizations and investors. With her diverse background in
corporate law, litigation, and land-use and zoning, she provides clients with the most up-
to-date information necessary to operate and invest in successful cannabis and ancillary
businesses. Lauren has run successful applications in competitive medical cannabis states
and adult-use markets alike, and represents a broad spectrum of cannabis and hemp
clients, including plant-touching breeders, cultivators, processors, and product
manufacturers; investors, including family offices and angels; and multiple ancillary
businesses, including networking associations, packaging businesses, ingredient
manufacturers, medical professionals, and industry consultants. Lauren is also a member
of the legal team that brought an action against former Attorney General Sessions and the
federal government seeking, among other things, a declaration that the mis-classification
of cannabis as a Schedule I drug is unconstitutional, on, among other things, due process,
equal protection, free speech, and commerce clause grounds.


Lauren is an Expert Contributor to Marijuana Venture Magazine, a frequent
speaker at national and local cannabis events, including, among others, MJ Biz Con, the
Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition, NCIA, Emerald Cup, and the Women
Grow Leadership Summit and provides pro bono legal and advocacy services to the
Cannabis Cultural Association, among others. Lauren also serves on the Executive
Committee of the Board of Directors for the International Cannabis Bar Association, as
the organization’s Treasurer. Lauren enjoys an extensive network of cannabis
professionals nationwide, enabling her to provide full legal and business services to her
clients.

INCBA

Former Executive Director

Experienced attorney, compliance professional, and business strategist with a focus on all things that live at the intersection of law and cannabis. 

My former position as the leader of the International Cannabis Bar Association allows me to see the complex legal landscape of the cannabis industry emerge in real time at the local, state, federal, and international level. My background in complex financial regulation gave me the tools to understand and unwind complex regulatory structures and my deep curiosity around emerging markets drives me to explore and understand the unique rules, opportunities, players, and iterations of the developing cannabis industry. 

D.B. McCracken Law, LLC dba Dogwood Advisors

Attorney

Miller Johnson

Member

Vicente LLP

Josh Kappel is a founding partner of Vicente Sederberg specializing in risk assessment for
multinational corporations and financial transactions in the highly regulated cannabis industry. He also routinely provides advice to patients, caregivers, and businesses about cannabis, licensing, regulatory compliance, general business and transactional law, and the intersection of state and federal law. Recently Josh has focused his time on the two largest cannabis markets in the world: California and Canada.

Clark Hill PLC

Member

Bob Hoban sits at the center of the world’s largest commercial cannabis industry network; a cannabis industry ecosystem that he has painstakingly cultivated since 2008.  Since the cannabis industry became commercialized, he has been widely credited for creating the class of lawyers now known as “cannabis attorneys.”  He is known for the tremendous value that he places in his relationships and is not satisfied unless he can help his business clients thrive in this burgeoning global industry; an industry he has played a significant role in establishing.  Bob has earned a reputation as a cannabis industry dealmaker representing start-ups, entrepreneurs, and companies in all stages of development.  Mr. Hoban has truly transcended the practice of law and is regularly involved in assembling and structuring large scale cannabis industry M&A transactions.  Above all else, Bob is a cannabis industry expert.  

 

Beginning in 2008, he deliberately constructed the Hoban Law Group (HLG) to become the world’s leading full-service commercial cannabis industry law firm; the first of its kind.  Since that time, HLG has indeed become the world’s leading cannabis industry law firm, with offices in seventeen states and ten nations abroad, and over fifty attorneys who specialize in all aspects of the commercial practice surrounding the cannabis industry. For nearly ten years, HLG has represented the cannabis industry’s titans in every aspect of the commercial cannabis industry around the world.  And he is largely responsible for the establishment and growth of the CBD industry due to his legal strategies, litigation matters, and policy efforts executed on behalf of HLG clients.    

 

From 2010-2016, Bob served as one of the Nation’s first cannabis policy instructors at the University of Denver, where he regularly lectured regarding cannabis topics (government regulations, public policy, and research-based policy courses), and where he led a University-sanctioned research practicum concerning the efficacy of marijuana regulation; the first of its kind in the U.S.  He then taught several international travel courses concerning the emergence of the global cannabis industry.  Because of this academic background, Bob has been asked to work with dozens of governments across the U.S., Asia, the E.U., and Latin America (over thirty different countries) on crafting their commercial cannabis public policy solutions (legislation and regulations).  And he has served on a variety of national, state, and local task forces related to cannabis policy issues.         

 

He has consistently been recognized as one of the most influential people in the global cannabis industry by a variety of organizations and publications over the course of the past ten-plus years.  Since 2013, Bob has achieved the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, awarded to only those lawyers with the highest ethical standards and professional ability.  He was recently named a “Cannabis Law Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal, and he has been consistently recognized as one of “Denver’s Top Cannabis Lawyers for nearly a decade.    

 

Bob frequently appears in media coverage as a legal expert on cannabis and has been a keynote speaker at dozens of cannabis events around the world.  He has conducted hundreds of interviews regarding marijuana policy for international, national, state, and local media outlets.  Major media outlets like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, Rolling Stone, Forbes, VICE, MSNBC, and Bloomberg all have called on Bob for his unique perspective on the cannabis industry.

Greenbridge Corporate Counsel

Founder

Khurshid Khoja is CEO of Greenbridge Corporate Counsel, P.C. a business law firm he founded in 2012, which represents legal cannabis and psychedelics-related enterprises on regulatory and transactional matters. He’s participated in legislative and initiative drafting, stakeholder meetings, executive agency outreach, and rulemaking proceedings in connection with California’s cannabis laws and regulations, including Proposition 64 and the Medicinal and Adult Use  Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA), as well as the Minority Cannabis Business Association’s Model Municipal Social Equity Ordinance.

Khurshid serves as Chair Emeritus of the Board of Directors of the National Cannabis Industry Association, as the Co-chair of NCIA’s Policy Council. He has previously served on the Board of the Minority Cannabis Business Association  and as Co-chair of its Policy Committee, as well as serving as a founding board member of the California Cannabis Industry Association and as its General Counsel. 

Khurshid was profiled in The National Law Journal’s first ever Cannabis Law Trailblazers’ list in 2018, was awarded NCIA's Inaugural Steve Fox Excellence in Advocacy Award, and he’s been named to the annual Northern California  Super Lawyers Rising Stars list multiple times. He was elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, has twice received Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s Unsung Hero Award, and Arcview Investor Network’s Outstanding  Member Award. His work has been profiled in Bruce Barcott’s book Weed the People, and his earliest days in California’s pre-regulated industry are chronicled in Doug Fine’s book Too High To Fail.

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