Antitrust and competition senior counsel Brian Mohr, cannabis and CBD practice leader Anita Famili, and M&A and capital markets practices leader Thomas Poletti authored an article for Law360 about the current state of M&A transactions in the cannabis industry. In the article, the authors discussed the increased difficulties larger cannabis transactions would face as a result of significant and unprecedented roadblocks from the U.S. Department of Justice, pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. The authors also noted that despite the increased regulatory review process currently impacting the cannabis industry, they expect that the negative attention from the media and Congress brought about by these investigations “will likely incentivize Barr and his DOJ cohort to be more circumspect going forward with second requests and issue only those that are duly warranted and not driven by other factors,” resulting in a more streamlined HSR Act approval process for transactions in the cannabis industry.
Read the article here.