Lunch will be provided! • After Party Tickets Available at the Event
Join the Cal NORML Legal Committee
See Seminar Agenda • See Full Faculty Biographies
California Attorneys and others are invited to attend the Cal NORML law seminar, to be held from 9 am – 5 pm on February 17, 2018 at the Waterfront Hotel in Oakland.
The seminar will cover criminal and civil aspects of the MAUCRSA marijuana law and new cannabis industry regulations, with an emphasis on microbusinesses and cottage cultivation licenses.
Other topics will include:
Local land use ordinances
Forfeiture law
Child custody law
Federal law
MCLE credits (6.25 hours General Credit) are pending.
Presenters will include:
Jennifer Ani is a distinguished family law attorney and a zealous advocate for her clients’ rights. Ani’s law practice includes Juvenile Dependency and Family Law litigation as well as guardianship, adoption, civil rights, juvenile immigration status, marital agreements and dissolution (divorce) mediation, VAWA self-petitions, domestic violence, defense of CPS and child abuse allegations, and legal malpractice.
James Anthony, a Former Oakland Deputy City Attorney, drafted voter initiatives in San Jose and Santa Ana, and litigated local land use issues for collectives throughout California and helped collectives maintain legal compliance in jurisdictions including Bakersfield (Kern County), San Francisco, Oakland, Mendocino County, Sacramento, Stockton, San Jose and many others.
Anthony is a graduate of San Francisco State University and UC Davis School of Law.
Ariel Clark founded and became the Chair of the Los Angeles Cannabis Task Force, with a mission included establishing fair regulations for each of the cannabis industry’s various components, protecting and promoting diversity of the cannabis industry, and creating an economic climate in which everyone, from the government to the citizenry, benefits.
Ariel earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and is an active member of the National Cannabis Bar Association, California State Bar, and the Beverly Hills Bar Association. She serves on the board of California NORML, the policy committee of the California Grower’s Association.
Joe Elford is the former Chief Counsel for Americans for Safe Access (ASA) where he compelled the California Highway Patrol to revise its policy regarding the seizure of medical marijuana and won the appeal of Jovan Jackson in San Diego, which created precedent establishing the legality of medical marijuana dispensaries in California. He argued with Raging Wire employment rights case before the California Supreme Court and recently won a settlement in Lake County where he challenged warrantless raids of personal cannabis gardens.
After graduating from Yale Law School in 1996, Joe served as a law clerk for the Honorable Vaughn Walker of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Omar Figueroa is a pioneering cannabis lawyer who has been providing legal counsel and representation to members of California’s cannabis industry since 1998. He is the author of Cannabis Codes of California, the first comprehensive guide to laws and regulations governing the California cannabis industry. Omar entered the cannabis industry as a criminal defense lawyer, where he tirelessly defended individuals charged with cannabis-related crimes. With the passage of cannabis legalization in California, Omar has expanded his practice to keep pace with the industry’s legal needs. Omar is committed to the growth and success of the commercial cannabis industry.
Omar earned his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Yale College, his juris doctor from Stanford Law School, and is a proud graduate of Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College. Omar also trained under legendary San Francisco trial lawyer Tony Serra. He is a Founding Lifetime Member of the National Cannabis Bar Association, a Lifetime Member of the NORML Legal Committee, as well as a proud member of the American Bar Association, the California State Bar.
Anne Kelson is an advocate and former educator who has focused on employment law, constitutional law, intellectual property and social justice. While studying law at U.C. Davis, Anne interned at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the A.C.L.U. of Northern California where she worked on a variety of issues including online speech, intellectual property and cutting edge questions of civil liberty in the digital age. She also served as a research assistant to Professor Keith Aoki and provided key research on plants and the patent regime for the book “Seed Wars”.
Prior to her transition into cannabis law, Anne worked as a litigator in several boutique firms in the Los Angeles area, where she litigated high profile disputes involving single plaintiff and class action employment cases. Anne has also litigated several cases involving constitutional challenges to state legislation. Anne has represented employees as well as employers in state and federal courts, administrative proceedings, and arbitration. Anne has also routinely provided advice and counsel on a variety of employment related matters, including pre-employment screening, state and federal leave requirements, wage and hour compliance, employee handbooks and recent state and federal legislation. In addition to counseling cannabis businesses regarding employment policies and practices, Anne assists cannabis operators in navigating regulatory compliance matters, including state and local licensing.
Anne received a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College and master’s degree in Education from Brooklyn College. She is a graduate of U.C. Davis School of Law.
Khurshid Khoja is Principal and Founder of Greenbridge Corporate Counsel, a minority-owned and woman-managed business law firm founded in 2012, representing clientele in California, Washington, and Hawaii from across numerous sectors in the legal cannabis industry, on regulatory, start‐up, corporate, intellectual property, finance, and other commercial and transactional matters. Khurshid is a business lawyer with over a dozen years of experience in transactional matters, including advising clients and employers on: state and federal banking, corporate, finance and securities laws in multiple highly-regulated industries (including cannabis, insurance and energy); antitrust, unfair competition and trade association laws; intellectual property; commercial contracts; government relations; and regulatory compliance.
Khurshid has participated in legislative drafting, stakeholder meetings, lobbying, and executive agency outreach in connection with the California Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (and the amendments thereto) as well as amendments to the Medical Marijuana Program Act — specifically, and most recently, AB 2679. He also participated in initiative drafting in connection with the Adult Use of Marijuana Act — drafting AUMA’s pro-investor ownership definition, and successfully advocating for the removal of MCRSA-style cross-licensing restrictions and mandatory third-party distribution by the drafting committee.
Khurshid was President of the Class of 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and is an alumnus of The University of Chicago and DePaul University.
Lauren Mendelsohn is an associate attorney with the Law Offices of Omar Figueroa, a boutique Northern California law firm serving the cannabis industry. Ms. Mendelsohn focuses on permitting and licensing for cannabis businesses, regulatory compliance, government affairs, and post-conviction relief.
For the past several years, Ms. Mendelsohn has been active in the drug policy reform movement as well as other progressive and humanitarian efforts. She is the former Chair of the Board of Directors of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), an international non-profit organization working to end the counterproductive “War on Drugs.” She is passionate about the environment, human and civil rights, science, and the arts.
Ms. Mendelsohn earned her J.D. from the University of California, Irvine School of Law and her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland. She is a proud member of the California State Bar, the Sonoma County Bar Association, the National Cannabis Bar Association, SSDP’s Sensible Society, California NORML, Americans for Safe Access, and the ACLU.
Hannah Nelson has been deeply involved in cannabis law and policy for more than 25 years. She has a long history in criminal defense, forfeiture and civil rights appellate and trial cases on the cutting edge (e.g. thermal imaging need for warrant, dismissal of cases during lapse of forfeiture laws, and representation of the Civil Liberties Monitoring Project in landmark cases such as GreenSweep). Nelson’s successes include the first fully litigated return of medical cannabis to the patient and the use of environmental laws to reign in eradication teams.
In addition, Nelson has been deeply involved in drafting cannabis policy and ordinances since 1996, when she and the then Mendocino County Sheriff and District Attorney teamed up to propose the first-ever permitting program. Unfortunately, the then Board of Supervisors were not ready for such action. In 2007, Nelson was asked to help draft the original 9.31 program. Nelson remains extensively involved in drafting public policy and providing analysis and comment at the local and state levels.
Nelson’s 17-year experience in regulatory permitting and land use as the legal advisor for a world-renowned music festival, her 16 years as a small business attorney, and her rich history in cannabis law, allow her to advise the newly regulated industry comprehensively.
Amanda Ostrowitz is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of CannaRegs. She is an attorney and entrepreneur specializing in cannabis regulations and has developed a comprehensive database of federal, state, and local cannabis laws. Prior to conceiving and co-founding CannaRegs, Amanda worked as a bank examiner at the Denver Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, where her practice focused on regulatory compliance in the consumer lending and banking industries. Amanda is an east coast native who moved to Colorado in 2004 to attend Colorado College where she earned a B.A. in Economics. She later received her Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. In September of 2014 Amanda entered the First Annual Massroots Marijuana Technology Startup Competition and earned first prize for CannaRegs, which launched in June of 2015. In January CannaRegs was selected as one of the 50 Colorado Startups to watch in 2016.
William Panzer is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley and Golden Gate University School of Law. He has been practicing law in the Bay Area for thirty years, specializing in cannabis defense.
Panzer is a co-author of California’s Proposition 215, “The Compassionate Use Act of 1996,” the nation’s first law legalizing the use of cannabis by patients pursuant to a physician’s recommendation. In his practice he has represented patients, growers, and medical cannabis dispensaries throughout California in state and federal court, at both the trial and appellate level.
He has lectured at numerous NORML legal seminars, Patients Out of Time legal seminars, conferences and other events on cannabis law and related issues. A member of the NORML Legal Committee for over twenty years, Bill is a former winner of the NORML “Al Horn Award” and a two-time winner of the Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana’s “Compassion In Action” Award, as well as a High Times magazine “Freedom Fighter of the Month.”
Robert Raich specializes in medical cannabis law, business law, political law, and lobbying. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Texas School of Law, he previously practiced law with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C.
Robert was the attorney in both of the U.S. Supreme Court cases ever to consider medical cannabis issues: United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, 532 U.S. 483 (2001), and Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005). Mr. Raich was a member of the California Attorney General’s Medical Marijuana Task Force (Chairman, Caregiver Issues Subcommittee), and he has taught classes on medical cannabis to cadets at Police Department Police Academies, as well as continuing education classes to other lawyers. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of California NORML, a member of the National NORML Legal Committee, and a Founding Board Member of the National Cannabis Bar Association.
Before practicing law, Mr. Raich served as a staff member in the United States Senate and the Texas House of Representatives, served in various positions in presidential and senatorial election campaigns, and served on a U.S. Department of Transportation Advisory Committee. At the behest of former President of Mexico Vincente Fox, Mr. Raich spoke at the USA – Mexico Symposium on the Legalization and Medical Use of Cannabis in Guanajuato, Mexico, July 18-20, 2013.
MCLE credits (6.25 hours General Credit) are pending.
Buy Tickets (member discounts offered).
If you are unsure about your Cal NORML member status or have other questions, please write [email protected] or call 415-563-5858.