Joint ventures present exciting opportunities to achieve long-term business goals that may have once seemed unimaginable. However, they also often require owners to give up some amount of control of the business they built. It is therefore critical to know about your potential business partners and ensure that you have a clear governance structure that is easy to follow and rewards everyone appropriately for their contributions.

When a client comes to us excited about an opportunity, we do more than just “paper the deal” at Rattner Law. We look at the proposed joint venture and suggest ways to expand the opportunity or even view it from a different angle that opens pathways our clients have not yet thought about. By providing this strategic counsel, we aim to help our clients make the most of their opportunities. 

Despite the excitement, we remain clear-eyed about protecting what really matters to our clients via thorough due diligence, asking har and even uncomfortable questions, and ensuring the deal documents provide adequate ways to protect our clients’ interests.

An M&A transaction involving cannabis licensees requires keen attention to regulatory requirements surrounding ownership, control, and disclosure, among many other compliance-critical items depending on the specific transaction. A cannabis transaction done wrong can result in significant fines, direction from a regulatory agency to unwind the transaction after the business has operated on agreed-upon terms, or even the loss of the license. Simply put, cannabis deals are not normal M&A transactions. 

With that in mind, the attorneys at Rattner Law guide clients through all aspects of mergers and acquisitions, from negotiating term sheets and performing due diligence to drafting definitive agreements. Our busy M&A practice encompasses everything from the most simple “paper license” sales to sales of entire operating businesses that include many interrelated legal issues. This may include refinancing or repayment of existing debt, real estate, intellectual property, inventory, and raw materials. 

Throughout the process, we identify potential regulatory issues and advise about ways to address these issues that enable the transaction to proceed. After all, we are not here to say “no” to the business objective. Rather, we view our role as helping our clients find the compliant path to achieving that business objective–even where that means questioning the underlying assumptions.