American Bar Association: International Law Section - The Global Business of Cannabis Conference: Interview with Susan Burns

Our Chief Marketing Officer, Maggie Wilson, caught up with Susan Burns, the chair for the American Bar Association International Law Section Global Business of Cannabis Conference.

Maggie is the Keynote Speaker on Thursday evening with “Cannabis Culture Shock: The Importance of Authentic Education".

Please enjoy this interview below. Scroll to the bottom to register for the event.

FS: “Hi Susan, thank you so much for being here today. Can you introduce yourself?”

SB: “Hi, Maggie. It's an absolute pleasure to be here today. I'm Susan Burns. I'm a business lawyer and I work with emerging and scaling businesses and my specialty is working with, uh, Growing businesses, the minority women owned businesses. And I also work in the cannabis area and I happen to be chair of the American bar association, section of international laws First international cannabis conference that's coming up in November.”

FS: “Can you tell us about this upcoming event?”

SB: “It's the first international cannabis conference that I, that I'm aware of, {because of}, legal issues. And so it will be November 10th to the 12th in Denver, Colorado appropriately. So since that was the first state in the United States to legalize cannabis, and we're looking forward to. Two and a half days of great internationally renowned speakers. We're delighted that the talented and brilliant Maggie Wilson as one of our keynote speakers on Thursday evening, and we have an introduction by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. We also have Congressman Perlmutter who will be appearing as the luncheon speaker and Nancy Whiteman, who is the CEO of Wana brands, which is an, also a nationally known, CBD THC infused product company.

And we, we have some pretty great panels.

During those two days, {we have] a Hospitality and Tourism panel and also Regulations That Can Trip Up Small Businesses. We have a diversity equity inclusion panel that is going to address issues of inequality and opportunities of the BiPOC community members and what they have faced and what they still face in, what is seen as a “progressive industry.” And so we're excited about that We also will have international ethics, mergers and acquisitions, international trade, intellectual property, and managing a plan. So I'm leaving out a few, but that's, those are the highlights.”

FS: “That sounds great. That sounds really, really beneficial. And sounds like it's really going to cover a lot for people who are going to be able to attend the event. How do you think it's going to be most benefited?”

SB: “I think it's, it's a very necessary first step in talking about cannabis on an international basis. I mean, it is, as you well know in the United state, we still have all kinds of problems with banking and which is why we're so happy to have Congressman Perlmutter with us because he's the author of the safe banking act. We had, we had hopes that it would pass by the time this conference took place, but as things are going, maybe not, you know, in the finance industry, the US has a huge impact globally. And then we have various countries that are leading a national basis, various jurisdictions, but there is, there is nobody that's having a global conversation about how do we, how do we work together on these regulations. And when we can start trading, how are we going to how's that going to look? And so I think it will be beneficial for lawyers who are new in the industry first of all, and then also lawyers who have been practicing for awhile. They'll learn about areas that they aren't familiar with.. We're privileged to have federal and state lawmakers that will be on hand. And so, it's an opportunity to discuss pending legislation that's affects all aspects of the, the canvas industry, not just financial services. It's going to be a great networking and learning experience. and I think it's cutting edge, but my own bias is cannabis is the most exciting areas that's come along practicing, in a few decades now.”

FS: “I agree. This sounds like it's going to be very successful. Do you see more events like this happening? Possibly different global cannabis conferences kind of taking place in places outside of the US or possibly outside of Denver as well?”

SB: “Yeah, I really do think this is the first of many. And with respect to the international law section of the ABA, we have usually three major conferences per year, and I'm talking with them about just establishing a cannabis track. So we can make sure to include cannabis in all of the different areas of the law, because a lot, a lot of times people think, oh, cannabis law, what's that? “What areas does that impact?” They think criminal or written or regulation and it's a “no”, it's like everything! Your marketing and advertising, labeling, trademarks, patent protection, mergers and acquisitions, leasing, real estate banking, everything, all areas of the law. I really hope that that not only the international law section of the ABA continues with this, but then that other organizations will pick this up because, you know, every opportunity we have to share on a new area, we learned from each other so much. And the International Cannabis Bar association does a really good job of that too.”

FS: “That is perfect. That's wonderful. The conference is in Denver from November 10th to November 12th and where can everybody find the, find the link to attend?”

SB: “Well, it is targeted to lawyers and it will have a lot of lawyers and all of the panels will be legal information. Anybody can attend. If you want to register the click the link to REGISTER HERE “

FS: “How can people find you and use your services, and tell us where you're located?”

SB: “Sburnslegal.com is my website. I'd love to hear from people about working with them on the legal aspects of their business. And also about anything that you have the suggest on cannabis topics and things that you think need to be addressed. I'm very excited about the opportunity to kick this off and register for the conference. I'd love to meet you, tell them to come and introduce yourself and tell me Maggie sent you. “

FS: “Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Susan. And, uh, thank you for being here! “

Fruit Slabs CEO, Brandon Dorsky will be speaking on the panel Cannabis Trademarks: Global IP Portfolios and Global Trade on November 12th at 2:30pm.