Import / Export: The Cross Border Hemp Trade

Robert Hoban Related seminars and products

Founder & President

Hoban Law Group

Bob Hoban sits at the center of the world’s largest commercial cannabis industry network; a cannabis industry ecosystem that he has painstakingly cultivated since 2008.  Since the cannabis industry became commercialized, he has been widely credited for creating the class of lawyers now known as “cannabis attorneys.”  He is known for the tremendous value that he places in his relationships and is not satisfied unless he can help his business clients thrive in this burgeoning global industry; an industry he has played a significant role in establishing.  Bob has earned a reputation as a cannabis industry dealmaker representing start-ups, entrepreneurs, and companies in all stages of development.  Mr. Hoban has truly transcended the practice of law and is regularly involved in assembling and structuring large scale cannabis industry M&A transactions.  Above all else, Bob is a cannabis industry expert.  

Beginning in 2008, he deliberately constructed the Hoban Law Group (HLG) to become the world’s leading full-service commercial cannabis industry law firm; the first of its kind.  Since that time, HLG has indeed become the world’s leading cannabis industry law firm, with offices in seventeen states and ten nations abroad, and over fifty attorneys who specialize in all aspects of the commercial practice surrounding the cannabis industry. For nearly ten years, HLG has represented the cannabis industry’s titans in every aspect of the commercial cannabis industry around the world.  And he is largely responsible for the establishment and growth of the CBD industry due to his legal strategies, litigation matters, and policy efforts executed on behalf of HLG clients.    

From 2010-2016, Bob served as one of the Nation’s first cannabis policy instructors at the University of Denver, where he regularly lectured regarding cannabis topics (government regulations, public policy, and research-based policy courses), and where he led a University-sanctioned research practicum concerning the efficacy of marijuana regulation; the first of its kind in the U.S.  He then taught several international travel courses concerning the emergence of the global cannabis industry.  Because of this academic background, Bob has been asked to work with dozens of governments across the U.S., Asia, the E.U., and Latin America (over thirty different countries) on crafting their commercial cannabis public policy solutions (legislation and regulations).  And he has served on a variety of national, state, and local task forces related to cannabis policy issues.         

He has consistently been recognized as one of the most influential people in the global cannabis industry by a variety of organizations and publications over the course of the past ten-plus years.  Since 2013, Bob has achieved the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, awarded to only those lawyers with the highest ethical standards and professional ability.  He was recently named a “Cannabis Law Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal, and he has been consistently recognized as one of “Denver’s Top Cannabis Lawyers” for nearly a decade.    

Bob frequently appears in media coverage as a legal expert on cannabis and has been a keynote speaker at dozens of cannabis events around the world.  He has conducted hundreds of interviews regarding marijuana policy for international, national, state, and local media outlets.  Major media outlets like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN, Rolling Stone, Forbes, VICE, MSNBC, and Bloomberg all have called on Bob for his unique perspective on the cannabis industry.

Daniel Kruse Related seminars and products

Hemp Entrepreneur and President

EIHA

Daniel Kruse, a pioneer of the hemp industry for 26 years, is founder and managing director of Hempro International GmbH & Co. KG and HempConsult GmbH, two of Europe`s leading hemp players.  Kruse has more than 16 years of experience in hemp food production.

Hempro Int. (founded in 2002), one of Europe’s first and largest hemp food companies, produces raw material (seeds, hulled nuts, oil, protein) and offers branded hemp foods under the HANF FARM label.

Based on a strong international network HempConsult (founded 2012) follows industry trends and developments on the global hemp markets, conducts market research and serves entrepreneurs, start-ups, investors and other stakeholders of the industry as a consultant for the development of strategic goals and their successful and sustainable implementation.

Since 2013, Kruse has served as a board member of the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA). In 2019 he was elected president of the EIHA.

At the EIHA Kruse is particularly active for his field of knowledge of cannabinoids in foods. For 15 years he has been involved in diverse topics in the field of THC and for 8 years also in the field of CBD. His cooperation with international experts and the advisory committee of EIHA combines the profound know-how from practice and science in the hemp and food industry. In course of this cooperation, various position papers and studies on THC and CBD in food have been drawn up and published.

Kruse represents industrial hemp stakeholders in front of the European Union and German governments, where his work has helped to advance the legal and regulatory framework for the hemp industry.

Trained as a banker, Kruse studied finance at Green Bay University in Wisconsin (USA) and Duesseldorf (Germany). He opened “HanfHaus,” a retail hemp retail shop in 1996, and in 1999 became Head of Sales as well as partner at HanfHaus GmbH in Berlin. Kruse founded Hempro International in 2002 to advance the development of hemp products, and to realise his vision: the successful combination of ecology and economy.

Eveline Van Keymeulen Related seminars and products

Head of Life Science Regulatory Practice

Allen & Overy

Eveline heads Allen & Overy’s Life Sciences Regulatory practice and is the founder and Sector Lead of A&O’s Cannabis practice.

Eveline’s practice focuses on EU regulatory law in the Life Sciences sector, and she has in-depth expertise in national regulations in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.  Eveline is one of the leading cannabis lawyers in Europe and a well-recognised specialist in EU and national regulations related to cannabis/hemp based products.  She has advised numerous clients, from start-ups to large corporations as well as trade associations, in navigating the complex and scattered regulatory landscape.  Eveline is also involved in the first referral related to “well-being” cannabis products before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the outcome of which may have an important impact on the future of the CBD industry in Europe.   

Eveline is an active speaker and writer on Life Sciences topics, and serves as editor-in-chief of the A&O Life Sciences Hub, the A&O blog dedicated to Life Sciences. She is also the founder and editor of A&O’s Cannabis Legal & Regulatory Update.  She is Associate Editor of the European Pharmaceutical Law Review and country correspondent for the Bio-Science Law Review. 

David Wenger Related seminars and products

General Counsel & Chief Strategy Officer

Asia Horizon

GRA Capital invests in US and foreign private and public cannabis companies, with a focus on cannabis operators, brands, and global supply chain.

Principal David Wenger is a NYC attorney who has been studying and investing in the cannabis industry since 2016.

David wrote a seminal White Paper on the US cannabis industry widely read across the world: The Green Regulatory Arbitrage: A Case for Investing in US Multi-State Vertically-Integrated Cannabis Companies (New Cannabis Ventures, Sept. 2018).

David has also published articles on judicial and legislative developments affecting the industry:

The U.S. cannabis industry needs access to the U.S. stock markets (MarketWatch, Nov. 2019);

How the U.S. harmonizing federal legalization with international drug treaty obligations will spark a wave of liberalization abroad (ICBC, Aug. 2019);

Extending the SAFE Banking Act to offer protections to US exchanges listing US cannabis companies (New Cannabis Ventures, Feb. 2019);

The declining risk of enforcement against state-legal cannabis businesses (New Cannabis Ventures, Jan. 2019); and

A federal court case that could end cannabis prohibition (MJ News Network, Dec. 2018).

David is GC, Chief Strategy Officer at Asia Horizon; a member of Body and Mind's (CSE: BAMM)'s Board of Directors; and an advisor to Noa Botanicals and RCVR.

In addition, David is a member of the US Senate Cannabis Working Group and the US House of Representatives Cannabis Working Group. In those roles, he has the historic opportunity to work with Congressional staffers on advancing federal cannabis legislation.

David has been a speaker or panelist at many cannabis events across the US, Europe, and Asia: ICBC (Berlin); ICBC; EuroAmBizCon (Prague); First Asia Hemp Investment Summit (Hong Kong), Arcview (Santa Monica), CWCB (Boston); ROTH (Laguna Beach); NCBA Annual Gathering (Washington, DC), CannaGather (Trenton); Arcview, Capital Roundtable, Winter & Fall Pitches, Business Insurance's 2019 Cannabis & Hemp Conference, IMN's IC3, and many others (New York), Arcview (Chicago), NCIA/CannaVest (San Jose); Cannabis 2.0 (Hawaii); and Investor Intelligence Conference (Las Vegas).

For 13 years, David represented foreign government and major corporate clients in high-stakes complex cross-border disputes and transactions. Working in the New York office of the global law firm DLA Piper, he acted for clients around the world such as Kingdom of Thailand, Petrobras, Ruler of Dubai, Afghanistan, PPG, Irving Shipbuilding, Pfizer, Troy (Vietnam), and Oman. As a law student, he interned for federal court judge Honorable Harold Baer Jr. in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

David is an avid cyclist and private pilot.

Kai-Friedrich Niermann Related seminars and products

KFN+

Kai has been a business and corporate lawyer in Germany for almost 17 years gaining wide range of experiences in the process. He is very familiar with the interconnectivity between national and European regulations, especially in regard to consumer protection, product safety and emerging new cannabis products. He has engaged in advocacy relating to cannabis beginning in early stages of his studies at Philipps University Marburg when the German Supreme Court ruled that small amounts of cannabis should not be criminalized. After medical cannabis was legalized in Germany, Kai started a legal blog (canna-biz.legal) on all the relevant new developments in the emerging cannabis market and became a legal expert especially for CBD products. 

He regularly speaks at international cannabis conferences on topics of the German and European legal framework. Lastly he spoke at the ICBC Virtual Global Symposium in June 2020, at the First Asian Hemp Summit 2019 in Hong Kong and at the Cannabis Law Institute 2019 in New York. He has published articles on the Prohibition Partners platform and was cited by the Cannabis Law Report as well as the Canadian Globe and Mail. Kai co-founded the International Cannabis Bar Association which with an event in Berlin in April 2019. He consults major CBD and medical cannabis companies as well as a reputable online knowledge portal for medical cannabis and CBD.

Kai is member of the European Hemp Association (EIHA), the German Hemp Association (DHV), Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP Germany), and Advisory Board Member of the International Cannabis Bar Association (INCBA).                

Areas of Law:

• Legal Cannabis Consulting
• regulatory approvals for medical cannabis and CBD
• Business law (company, commercial and contract law) 
• Law of torts
• criminal business law

born in 1972 in Löhne/Westf., Germany

studied law at the universities of Marburg, Adelaide (Australia), Cologne, and Berlin, first and second state exam (law degree)

worked as a legal expert at the press center of the German Federal Diet, worked for the Berlin District Court, for the Director of Public Prosecution in Berlin, for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Berlin and the Hong Kong Consulate General

www.kfnplus.de

www.canna-biz.legal (the legal cannabis blog)