CLAB, Cannabis Law, Accounting and Business is a South Florida based organization that provides education and networking opportunities to professionals that are involved or looking to be involved in the cannabis industry.
CEDR: Robert, can you please share a little about how you got into the cannabis space and what CLAB is all about.
Robert: It really was fortuitous, there was no grand design to get into cannabis. About 10 years ago, I started a company called Legal Learning Series, which provides continuing education for attorneys. We were doing this for years, providing education and networking, which gave attorneys a chance to connect and further their industry expertise.
About five years ago, cannabis law emerged as a new and exciting practice area. So, for all those attorneys who were no longer in law school, it was companies like mine that provided education about this new practice area. We quickly pivoted to more cannabis law programs and it did not take long to realize that we were onto something new. For the first time in five or six years of doing these programs, non-lawyers started showing up, investors started showing up, and the general message was this was important education.
The issues and topics within cannabis law were the issues that related, most importantly to cannabis itself, whether it was intellectual property, labor, employment, water rights or zoning, these were touchstone issues for cannabis. We also noticed for the first time ever our programs were attracting non attorneys. It only took a few months of doing cannabis law programs to realize that we needed to create an organization for professionals looking to get into the cannabis space.
CEDR: Can you share some insights on your annual conference?
Robert: The annual conference is the culmination of the entire year of education, networking and seminars and takes place in downtown Miami. We look to bring in the best and brightest from all over the world. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to do it this year, but are planning for February 6, 2021.
CEDR: Switching subjects, dispensaries here in Florida have begun selling edibles. Anything you can share about how that’s developing?
Robert: The Florida Department of Health just put out the rules, which everyone knew was coming. The companies involved had a good sense of what those rules would look like. So, in terms of preparation and logistics, the MMTC’s have been partnering up with edibles companies and building out their infrastructure. You’re going to see craziness in the next year from the edibles space.
CEDR: Thanks Robert and best of luck with CLAB!
