Steve leads Husch Blackwell’s Food Systems industry unit and Alternative Farming & Sustainability initiative, and co-leads the firm’s national cannabis practice.
As head of the firm’s Food Systems industry unit, Steve leads more than 50 professionals from numerous practice areas focused on the various food and agriculture industries. He excels in bringing innovative, cost-effective answers to the various challenges that our clients face, and he is especially passionate about working with new industries or industry disruptors.
Steve’s gift for developing creative solutions to new problems makes him a perfect fit for fresh and rapidly growing industries. Since 2009, his major focus has been on the burgeoning cannabis industry, where he guides clients through the tangle of shifting regulations governing the sale and use of cannabis in both the marijuana and industrial hemp sectors across the nation.
Steve has earned multiple national rankings in this practice area, working closely with the top MSOs in North America, as well as entrepreneurs, on all matters of marijuana and industrial hemp regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate structuring, debt and equity financing, governance, and securities compliance. The Cannabis team he co-leads is one of the country’s largest and most experienced, having grown with our clients to provide full-service representation to many of the largest cannabis operators in the U.S. and Canada.
More recently, Steve has expanded his practice to include alternative protein, cultivated meat and other clients pursuing new, sustainable answers to traditional agriculture—companies at the forefront of the food systems revolution. Steve supports new market entrants into the alternative farming space, assisting with a multitude of legal issues. Many of these clients are startups and early stage companies, and Steve offers guidance on matters such as capital formation, labor and employment, corporate structure and governance, and regulatory issues.
Both the Cannabis and Alternative Farming & Sustainability practices are part of Husch Blackwell’s Food Systems business unit, applying the insights and experiences gained from representing some of the world’s largest commercial seed, food production and alcohol and beverage companies to these newer and rapidly growing industries.