Federal Hemp Legislation and Regulation

Rend Al-Mondhiry Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Amin Talati Wasserman LLP

Rend Al-Mondhiry advises the dietary supplement, food, cosmetic, and over-the-counter medicine industries on a broad range of regulatory and compliance matters, with a focus on helping companies navigate the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape for hemp and CBD products at both the federal and state level. She is committed to helping companies responsibly develop and market products, drawing on her years of experience advising the nation’s leading dietary supplement and food companies on complex ingredient and labeling issues. She is also a frequent speaker and author on emerging legal and regulatory issues in the industry and is regularly quoted in the trade press.

Rend’s practice focuses on reviewing product labeling, ingredients, and advertising to determine compliance with federal and state regulations, and assisting companies in matters before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and National Advertising Division (NAD). She also advises clients on compliance with California’s Proposition 65, U.S. Customs issues, class action defense strategies, and FDA matters including Warning Letters, recalls, detentions, seizures, and import alerts.

Rend brings a unique perspective to these issues, having served as Associate General Counsel at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, one of the leading trade associations representing the dietary supplement and functional food industry. She has advocated on the industry’s behalf numerous times before FDA, FTC, Congress, and state attorneys general, and has substantial experience initiating and defending challenges before the NAD. In addition, she has over ten years of experience analyzing and responding to legislative and regulatory changes at the federal and state levels, working closely with scientific experts to ensure policy positions are not only legally sound but grounded in science. She has also assisted trade associations with non-profit compliance, strategic planning, and corporate governance matters.

When she’s not spending time with her husband and two very active boys, Rend enjoys running, practicing yoga, and reading historical fiction.

Amber Littlejohn, Esq. Related Seminars and Products

Of Counsel

Ice Miller LLP

Amber Littlejohn has served as a lawyer, strategist, and advocate for businesses in emerging markets for more than 15 years, providing government and business affairs services to businesses, nonprofit organizations, and lawmakers in regulated industries. She creates innovative legislative, regulatory, and public engagement strategies to access and grow markets, stabilize supply chains, and reduce crisis frequency and reach.

Named a Top Cannabis Lobbyist by Business Insider, Amber is a nationally recognized voice for the cannabis industry and related policy initiatives appearing regularly in national media outlets. She has testified before Congress on issues including small business capital access and cannabis legalization. She engages regularly with lawmakers and regulators at all levels of government. Prior to her work in cannabis, she was a business owner, strategist, and advocate for specialty consumer packaged goods and consumer health products including dietary supplements and sports nutrition products. 

Prior to joining Ice Miller, Amber was president and chief strategic officer for a public affairs firm that served to provide solutions in the areas of legislative and regulatory policy development, as well as government and regulatory affairs. She has also served as policy counsel and a consultant for several organizations in Washington, D.C.

Andrea Steel Related Seminars and Products

Principal

The Banks Law Firm, P.A.

Andrea Steel is a principal with The Banks Law Firm, where she leads the Firm’s Cannabis practice in addition to bringing extensive experience in affordable housing and community economic development law. With over 20 years of experience in law and criminal justice, Andrea brings a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record of success to her diverse clientele.

Andrea is a pioneer in the rapidly evolving cannabis industry, with deep rooted knowledge and experience, having been pivotal in securing a number of significant results impacting the industry at both state and federal levels. Andrea advises cannabis business clients, from startups to established enterprises across the supply chain, both plant-touching and ancillary, from cultivators to retailers, as well as manufacturers, distributors, testing labs, landlords, property owners, lenders and more. Her practice encompasses legalities and strategic advising for businesses with respect to all forms of cannabis, inclusive of hemp, cannabinoids (biosynthetic, semi-synthetic, synthetic, hemp-derived and other chemical forms, including delta-8 THC and other novel substances), medical marijuana, and adult-use marijuana, serving clients across the country with a focus on Texas. She advises on regulatory compliance, cannabis business licensing, risk analysis and mitigation strategizing, product labeling/marketing, entity formation, entity structuring and governance, contract negotiations, and real estate issues.

Andrea has also provided subject matter expertise to several other attorneys and law firms in various business transactions as well as litigation matters, assisting other lawyers in navigating the complexities with their clients. She has helped shape laws and policy in both Texas and federally, providing useful insight and specific language with respect to formulating statutes and regulations, an area Andrea truly enjoys.

In the affordable housing area, Andrea represents both for-profit and non-profit developers across the country, including public and private entities, as well as public housing authorities and tax increment reinvestment zones. Her work is concentrated on the legal representation of developers of affordable housing utilizing both 9% and 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits, tax exempt bond financing, CDBG and HOME Program funding and other federal, state and local subsidy and economic development programs, as well as stimulus grants created in response to disaster recovery and economic downturn rescue programs such as the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), COVID-19 Economic Relief Bill (CARES Act), Housing and Economic Recovery Act, and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including the Tax Credit Assistance Program, Tax Credit Exchange Program (Section 1602 Program), Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery funding, and Economic Development Administration grants.

Andrea serves as a Board Member of the International Cannabis Bar Association and serves as Vice President of Operations as well as co-chair of its Legislative Advisement Committee. Andrea has also served as a Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Cannabis Law and Policy Committee since 2021. She is a sought-after speaker at industry events, providing insight into recently approved and proposed laws, rules and regulations and other cannabis business matters. At her prior firm, she successfully launched, led and grew their cannabis business practice group.

Eric Steenstra Related Seminars and Products

President

Vote Hemp

Eric Steenstra co-founded the pioneering hemp clothing and lifestyle brand Ecolution with Steve DeAngelo in 1992. Eric went on to lead the nation’s first hemp trade group, serving as the Executive Director of the Hemp Industries Association from 2007 to 2016. Eric currently serves as the president of Vote Hemp and Vice President of the California Hemp Council. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences and trusted source to the media, including CBS, New York Times, Forbes, CNN, Rolling Stone, Reuters and the Washington Post.

In his role at Vote Hemp, Eric led the effort to pass hemp farming legislation nationwide and defend the hemp market. In 2001, Eric was part of the team that led the legal effort to overturn the DEA rule banning hemp products containing “any” THC in them. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately overturned the DEA interpretive rule in 2004 catapulting the market for hemp foods forward. In 2005, he worked with Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) to draft the first modern U.S. hemp legislation introduced in Congress (H.R. 3037). In 2012 he worked with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) to get companion hemp legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate (S. 3501). Eric worked with Congressman Polis (D-CO) and Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) to have hemp legislation included in the 2014 Farm Bill. The 2014 Farm Bill authorized the first legal hemp farming in over 50 years and resulted in 78,176 acres of hemp being planted across 24 states in 2018. Vote Hemp also played an integral role in the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill including fully removing hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. 

The California Hemp Council (CHC) worked to ensure that the state was ready for hemp legalization at the national level and successfully sponsored and passed state legislation (SB 1409, Chapter No. 986, Statutes of 2018) to allow California farmers to enter the hemp market and meet the growing demands of hemp product companies. The CHC secured the passage of SB 153 which updated California hemp laws to be in sync with the 2018 Farm Bill. If not for CHC efforts, California farmers would likely not be growing hemp today. 

Eric was part of groups that were awarded dispensary licenses in Maryland, Oregon and West Virginia and helped to oversee operations in. the Maryland store.  He currently is consulting on various hemp and cannabis projects including advising the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Hemp Commission.