Alana M. Hans-Cohen
Assistant Counsel
New York State Office of Cannabis Management
CANNABIS ATTORNEY LICENSED IN NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, MASSACHUSETTS, ILLINOIS, COLORADO, AND WASHINGTON
-Previous Past Chair, New York City Bar Association, Committee on Cannabis, Drugs and the Law
-Director, Cannabis Advisory Group
Alana Hans-Cohen is a one-woman repository of legal knowledge, rap lyrics, and bad puns. An attorney in the cannabis group at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, Alana is licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Washington State, Colorado, and Illinois. A self-proclaimed “cannabis nerd,” who focuses on cannabis law and policy, and how this new, highly regulated industry intersects business, real estate, government, and public policy. She’s pragmatic, direct, with a deep social conscience: the perfect combination for a modern lawyer.
An unbreakable advocate for her clients and their causes, navigating her way through the strange maze of cannabis law with no lawyerish crap along the way. She is a firm believer in the idea of an equitable and diverse legal and regulated cannabis industry, and many have had the benefit of her compassionate and fierce advocacy in their cause. Alana is focused on helping the cannabis industry become less "pale, male, and stale." She always says it like it is, in a voice that’s not hard to hear and she might have speeds other than fast forward, but no one is sure. Up for anything, filled with opinions she is happy to share, Alana is basically a good vibe.
Laid back but certainly not slow moving, Alana is your quintessentially millennial NYC professional. Disinclined to accept that anyone should be asleep if she’s not, maybe Alana never actually sleeps. No one really knows. If there’s one thing for which Alana is famous, apart from her mad skills and taste in music, it is for belying the conventional belief that lawyers are boring. She puts an exclamation mark on that sentence.
• From start-up to exit strategy, representing businesses and individuals at each level of the cannabis supply chain, including state-licensed adult-use cannabis, medical cannabis and hemp cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, and dispensaries, whether vertically integrated or operating as standalone businesses, as well as investors in those businesses.
• Advising a full range of vendors, plant-touching and ancillary, which supply their products and services to the cannabis industry, such as bio-mass, technology, advertising, social media, consumption products and security companies on the considerations pertinent to entering into the cannabis space.
• Assisting cannabis-related clients in understanding and assessing the federal and state regulatory framework for cannabis; applications for licenses to operate and related administrative matters; commercial litigation; negotiating and documenting investments, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions; conducting due diligence on the targets of such transactions; federal, state and local tax issues; day-to-day regulatory advice and general business counsel; and labor and employment, including workplace training and litigating workplace claims.
• Providing to public sector stakeholders involved in legislation, rule-making, regulation and municipal decision-making relevant guidance from established cannabis-friendly states, cannabis industry operators, advocates, and thought leaders.
• Educating and providing actionable perspectives to government and private clients on the “how” of the development of legal access to cannabis at the state and local levels.