“The Oxymoron of Ethical Cannabis Lawyering: Advising Clients on Breaking the Law Without Violating Ethical Rules”

The title of this post is the title of this new paper recently posted to SSRN and authored by Courtney Pratt, a recent graduate of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.  (This paper is yet another in the on-going series of student papers supported by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.)   Here is this latest paper’s abstract: 

Cannabis companies in the United States operate in a shadowed area of the law where state and federal laws frequently change and often conflict.  Cannabis attorneys, who advise cannabis companies in ways similar to other corporate attorneys, must also traverse this grey space.  For cannabis attorneys, it is critical to discern whether an action taken by the attorney in furtherance of the cannabis company’s business runs afoul of the rules of professional conduct, which govern attorneys in the United States. 

Until cannabis is reclassified under the Controlled Substances Act or Congress passes legislation immunizing cannabis attorneys, there will always be some level of risk inherent in an attorney’s representation of cannabis clients.  Until this time comes, attorneys should protect themselves by adopting procedures to define the scope of representation, monitoring clients’ business affairs, reevaluating the nature of representation as laws change, and informing clients about conflicts, risks, and implications of operating a cannabis company, and carefully documenting these warnings.