Supply Chain Dynamics

Erin Alexander Related seminars and products: 1

Associate General Counsel

Cresco Labs

Erin Alexander is the Associate General Counsel for multi-state operator Cresco Labs. She oversees regulatory legal and licensing across all states where Cresco Labs owns / operates cultivation, processing, distribution and retail facilities. She also provides counsel on a wide spectrum of legal matters and oversees Cresco Labs’ license application submissions. Prior to her time in the regulated cannabis industry, Ms. Alexander was an attorney for the Illinois Gaming Board. Ms. Alexander is a former Board Member and Vice President of Illinois Women in Cannabis, a not-for-profit organization that promotes women’s role in Illinois’ expanding cannabis industry. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Florida State University and a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law.

Nicole Howell Related seminars and products: 1

Principal

Clark Howell LLP

Nicole Howell is one of California’s most respected and effective cannabis business and regulatory attorneys. Industry executives, private investors, and public companies turn to Nicole for her perspective and proven track record in advising the industry’s most successful operators through California’s challenging and dynamic market.   

In serving as general counsel to the state’s movers and shakers, Nicole has guided her clients over the major (and novel) corporate and regulatory hurdles unique to a market in its first decade of existence. Her role as lead regulatory counsel in successfully closing one of 2019’s largest and highest profile Canadian public company acquisitions of a beloved California enterprise demonstrates her skill in navigating bet-the-deal matters of first impression. Her work in structuring the legal framework for the state’s most innovative and fastest growing delivery provider illustrates her dedication to rolling up her sleeves to craft creative legal solutions that fuel business growth. Bold businesses and brands rely on Nicole’s counsel to be rooted in a rich understanding of the nuances, rules, and relationships that go into winning a successful outcome.     

Nicole works actively with local and state legislative and regulatory efforts, having served as a member of State Treasurer John Chiang’s Cannabis Banking Working Group, as Chief Policy  Advisor to the California Growers Association, on the Board of California NORML, and currently is  involved in other industry and business related organizations, including the National and  California Cannabis Industry Associations, International Cannabis Bar Association, San Francisco  Chamber of Commerce, and the Executive Committee of the Cannabis Section for the San Francisco Bar Association. 

Nicole has been recognized as one of the top 75 “Most Important Women in Cannabis” by Cannabis Business Executive, of the “30 Most Powerful Cannabis Lawyers” by MG Magazine, annually ranked by Super Lawyers magazine since 2012, and recognized for several years running as an “Attorney to Watch” by Chambers and Partners USA. In 2018, the firm was recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine in the nation’s top five cannabis firms. Nicole regularly speaks, teaches, and writes on the topics of cannabis and hemp business and regulatory law, and the decriminalization of plant medicines and other emerging therapeutics.   

Prior to founding Clark Howell LLP (originally Clark Neubert LLP) Nicole practiced law at the San Francisco firms Clarence Dyer & Cohen LLP and Farella Braun + Martel LLP, where she earned a reputation as a tenacious, solution-oriented advocate in high stakes, parallel civil, criminal, and regulatory matters.

Jeremy Unruh Related seminars and products: 1

General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer

PharmaCannis

Jeremy Unruh serves as the PharmaCann senior vice president of regulatory and external affairs.  He brings a fifteen-year track record as a government prosecutor and big firm lawyer to the developing cannabis industry.  

Jeremy is responsible for the company’s external matters, including legislative policy and public affairs; media relationships; organized labor, and coordination with state and local regulators.  He manages lobbying efforts in six statehouses and Washington, D.C., and is at the tip of the spear as PharmaCann works to develop its licensed facilities.  Jeremy is on the executive committee of the Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania industry associations.  Most importantly, Jeremy oversees the development of the PharmaCann social equity and corporate responsibility program.  

As one of the company’s original employees, Jeremy served as PharmaCann’s first general counsel and chief compliance officer, responsible for the buildout, security, and warehousing functions of PharmaCann’s first cohort of cultivation centers and dispensaries:

• Developed and commissioned two 60,000 ft.² cultivation centers and four dispensaries in Illinois.
• Developed and commissioned a 130,000 ft.² manufacturing center and four dispensaries in New York.
• Managed interaction between company and the state regulatory agencies of New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Massachusetts relating to the licensed cultivation and distribution of medical cannabis. 
• Developed the legal and regulatory compliance systems for all of the PharmaCann operational facilities with more than 450 employees. 

Beginning his career as a prosecutor, Jeremy was trained in trial advocacy by the United States Department of Justice at the National College of District Attorneys in Columbia, S.C.  Before his eventual appointment as the first-chair prosecutor in the courtroom of the Chief Judge of the Criminal Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Jeremy successfully investigated and tried drug cases, homicides, financial, and sexual abuse crimes.

Jeremy went into private practice for a firm that would reach the American Lawyer Top 100 during his tenure.  Jeremy’s practice focused on commercial litigation, internal compliance investigations in the financial services and healthcare sectors, and product liability defense.  He was the lead trial attorney on the national product liability trial team for a Fortune 100 industrial company for many years.

Jeremy has a B.S. from Kansas State University.  He earned a Juris Doctor from Washburn University School of Law where he was an inaugural recipient of the Environmental Law certificate.  While serving as an assistant state’s attorney in Chicago, Jeremy attended DePaul University Kellstadt School of Business Management at night and earned his M.B.A.  Jeremy lives in the northern suburbs of the Chicagoland metropolitan area with his wife and three children.