Harris Sliwoski

Harris Sliwoski LLP describes itself as an international business law firm with US offices in Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, Denver and Seattle and its own lawyers in Sydney, Barcelona, Madrid and Portugal, and says it has two decades in business. Its cannabis timeline begins in 2010 with clients in Washington under that state's medical cannabis laws, adds Oregon in 2011 and California in 2012, and records the opening of its Portland office in 2015. In 2024 it added California, Oregon and Washington cannabis lawyers from Cultiva Law and Lotus Law.

The cannabis group handles company formation and structuring, transactional agreements, M&A, intellectual property, corporate governance, taxation, licensing, and the purchase and leasing of cannabis real estate. It concentrates on Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, and works with retailers, distributors, processors, manufacturers, growers, investors and ancillary businesses. Its timeline also notes work helping financial institutions follow FinCEN guidance on banking state-licensed cannabis companies and a 2019 engagement by the National Credit Union Administration on banking cannabis and hemp customers.

Harris Sliwoski has published the Canna Law Blog since 2012 and keeps a cannabis glossary; it also runs ketamine and psychedelics practices. It says it offers flat-fee billing on roughly 90 percent of its work but does not publish rates. For international cannabis matters it has people in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Portugal, Spain and Mexico and refers clients to local counsel elsewhere. The firm notes that its Beijing affiliate provides consulting rather than legal services in China.