lawyers
for clark
thehowellLLP
green
frontier
EST. in CALIFORNIA 2014
lawyers
clark for
howell LLP
a paradigm shift
Born in 2020
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Our Mission

We empower our clients to envision, launch, fund, and grow resilient, mission-aligned businesses and organizations in the cannabis, hemp and psychedelics sectors.  We also represent individuals and organizations in any sector that are interested in a relational approach* to legal drafting and the business life cycle.

Our mission is to meet our client’s needs by delivering seasoned corporate and regulatory expertise and skillful, strategic legal advice. We use cutting edge tools to create optimal conditions for resilient, collaborative legal relationships that contribute to all parties’ wellbeing and evolution.

Vision-to-Reality, Idea-to-Exit, Ethos-to-Execution:

We work with you. For you. For us.

For the wellbeing of all being.

What is a relational approach to legal drafting and business life cycle?

Recognizing that change is constant and disagreements are inherent in thriving, dynamic working relationships, whenever possible and aligned with our client’s needs, we use innovative legal tools that build on traditional contract structure and provisions that

1) installs your mission, vision and values as the cornerstone of your contracts and

2) helps you create robust, clear, mutually-agreed processes for “Addressing Change & Engaging Disagreement” (ACED).

Think of these as more detailed “Recitals” in your contracts and a more thoughtful “Negotiation” section in the standard “Alternative Dispute Resolution” provision. In this way, we make your standard contract more of a living, breathing tool you actually use during the partnership to enhance the business objectives and strengthen the relationship rather than simply a static tool pulled out only when there is an issue and then used mostly as a weapon. Litigation is a tired old system in which no one wins. Of course, the adversarial process remains available to the parties if all else fails, but we help create the conditions that use change and conflict to spark ingenuity and collaboration and attempt to avoid creating victims, defensiveness, fear, and aggression.

We’re not satisfied with “the way things have always been” or “what everyone else is doing.”

We are human beings who practice law

We actively engage in our own unique paths toward self-realization and recognition of our interconnectedness with all being. We work to integrate this into our chosen path of service and profession.

We envision a world where human beings enter all relationships curious and open to evolving in process with each other. Where these connections are the fertile ground in which we discover our wellbeing as inextricably linked to the wellbeing of all beings, and where we joyfully act in integrity with this wisdom.

  • Corporate
  • Regulatory
  • Supply Chain
  • Commercial Real Estate
  • Hemp & Hemp Products
  • Emerging Medicines

Who Are We?

Who

Are

You?

You have a vision of the more beautiful world you know is possible.

Start-Ups

Visionary, Savvy Start-ups Creating Long-Term Value & Legacy

Brands & Operators

Licensed Cannabis and Psilocybin Organizations

Investors

Investors Seeking Sound Investments & Holistic Returns

Service Providers

Practitioners, Facilitators, Clinics & Service Centers

Ceremonial & Sacred Practice

Communities Acting In Integrity With Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs

Why Choose Us?

Deals done better.

We simplify complexity, engage reality, and partner with you to build bridges between legal doctrines and the day-to-day dynamics of an ever-changing business and natural world. In this way, we’re focused on your most important objectives, guided by our earned experience and unwavering commitment to helping you create thriving businesses through successful, nimble relationships and durable multistakeholder alignment.

Deals as Bridges to More Success and a More Evolved Society.

Women-owned and steered, we know what it’s like to chart your own course. For us, this has meant following our true north while remaining open to the twists and turns of life, business, drug policy reform and changing paradigms. Openness, humility, courage, boldness, and beginner’s mind – These are what guide us today.

We help you connect the dots.

Corporate
Transactions
practice Licensing & areas Regulatory Mergers & Acquisitions Commercial Contracts
Cannabis & Hemp
Psychedelics

01.

Corporate Transactions

Experts in Corporate, Leaders in Cannabis & Emerging Psychedelics.

We help our clients maneuver successfully through all phases of the corporate life cycle, from vision-to-execution and idea-to-exit. The firm provides full service business and corporate counseling to new and existing companies and organizations at all critical points: start up, financing, securities, corporate governance, business transactions, and mergers and acquisitions.

02.

Licensing & Regulatory

We know red tape.

Actively engaged on behalf of industries in the regulatory implementation of the California Medicinal and Adult Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (“MAUCRSA”) and Oregon’s Psilocybin Services Program, we help you identify, obtain, and operate commercial licenses at the local and state level. We’ve been here from the start and can maneuver through the minutia so you can get to work.

03.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Cannabis deals are different. Full stop. We are corporate experts who truly understand the nuances and regulatory analysis needed to transform an exciting opportunity into a successful transaction. We have the experience, insight, and reputation to help structure and close the right deal.

04.

Commercial Contracts

You know your business. We know how to make your business relationships work.

As experts working with cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, testing labs, and retailers, we negotiate, craft and close contracts that fuel business growth while strictly complying with local and state regulations. Our experience gives our clients a leg up.

05.

Psychedelics - Policy & Ethical Business Models

A Paradigm Shift is Underway. As decriminalization and research efforts expand across California, Oregon, Colorado and the nation for psychedelics and natural medicines, we are actively engaged in policy reform and helping to shape laws that emphasize open source, ethical business models, and reimagine a new role for capitalism in commercialization. The firm ascribes to and works with clients who have taken the North Star Pledge and are taking concrete steps to implement these intentions into their organization. Firm partners are founders of the Psychedelic Bar Association, inviting attorneys to integrate the PBA’s North Star Invitation into their practice of law.

06.

Psychedelics Economy

Making the Mainstream More Psychedelic. From facilitators, clinics and service centers to religious use practitioners to mission-aligned start-ups, researchers, and drug developers, we are your general legal counsel, advising on compliance, best practices, and contracting. We use the most up-to-date, established and peer-vetted standards for facilitators, clinics, and ceremonial communities; international frameworks for consent, access, and benefit-sharing under the Nagoya Protocol; and the best practices and corporate governance methodologies for creating durable public benefit and multi-stakeholder business models.

Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your myth.

– Rumi

What We Do

A Few of Our Favorite Cannabis Deals

Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions
Licensing & B2B Supply Chain
Done & DustedLocation
Lead Regulatory Counsel Structuring Canadian Public Company’s Purchase of Green Chip Retailer & Manufacturer Brands ($80MM)Northern California
Canadian Fund’s Multiple Investments in Manufacturer, Distributor, Cutivator, and Nursery including Real Estate ($7.5MM)Mendocino and Humboldt
Multiple Transactions for San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles
Equity Partnerships ($20MM+)		San Francisco,
Oakland,
Los Angeles
Sale of Premium Extracts Brand and Licensed Manufacturer to California Firm Fund ($4.3MM)Nevada City
Sale of Majority Stake in Storefront Retailer to New York Fund ($2.7MM)Los Angeles
Series A Financing for Licensed Manufacturer ($4.0MM)San Francisco
Family Office Placement of Investment in Major Cannabis Events Company and Brand ($3.5MM)California
Formation of Cannabis Focused Venture Capital Fund ($25MM target)California, Texas
Done & DustedLocation
Brand Licensing Deal for Multi State Women-Owned Small Batch Edibles’s Launch into California
Market ($2.0MM Guarantee; 18% Royalty)		Sonoma County
Company and Lead Regulatory Counsel Obtaining 47 State State Cultivation Licenses for California-Native Cultivator ($30MM)Santa Barbara County
Obtained Equity Business Storefront Retailer Conditional Use Permit ($6.0MM)San Francisco
Lead Regulatory Counsel Obtaining Approvals for Cannabis Campus Including Cultivation, Manufacturing, Distribution, & Retail Licenses ($87MM)Desert Hot Springs
Lead Regulatory Counsel for California Public Company Successful Negotiating First of State’s Development Agreements for Cultivation, Manufacturing & Distribution ($15MM)Southern California
Lead General & Regulatory Counsel Structuring Complex Supply Chain and Partnerships For State’s Largest Membership Delivery ($20MM+)California
Lead General & Regulatory Counsel for Cutting Edge Isolated Cannabinoids Manufacturer
& Brand ($30MM+)		San Francisco, Santa Rosa
Lead Regulatory Counsel for First of State’s Licensed Cannabis Cooperatives ($1.5MM)Nevada County

Meet Our People

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