Burns & Levinson announced today that Katrina Skinner, a partner in the firm’s industry-leading Cannabis Business & Law Advisory Group, has been named a “Cannabis Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal (NLJ) for her leadership role in developing innovative cannabis banking structures and complex hemp/CBD regulatory and compliance frameworks.

Skinner has been a pioneer in the cannabis industry for over eight years – since Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in 2012. She served as president and general counsel of Safe Harbor Services, a leader in banking services for legal cannabis-related businesses, before joining Burns & Levinson, one of the first national law firms to develop a national cannabis business law practice in 2013.

She uses her deep expertise and industry gravitas to help covered financial institutions and large cannabis and hemp/CBD clients navigate the constantly shifting rules and regulations. Since the beginning of her cannabis career, she has solved “first-time” problems nearly every single day and her impact on the cannabis industry has been significant.

Skinner has not only moved the needle in the cannabis banking industry but helped define cannabis and hemp/CBD related regulatory structures throughout the country. She served on the Colorado Hemp Advancement & Management Plan, which was tasked with helping created Colorado’s hemp laws.

Burns & Levinson has unrivaled experience in cannabis and hemp/CBD business formation and corporate structuring, private placements, venture capital, M&A, securities, banking issues, fund formation, debt and equity financing, restructuring and receiverships, real estate acquisitions and leasing, intellectual property protection, 280E taxation issues, and cannabis litigation. The firm is well-known for its role in the cannabis banking industry and has worked with multiple financial institutions to establish a framework that allows them to accept cannabis-derived deposits – client GFA Federal Credit Union was the first financial institution in Massachusetts to offer banking services to adult-use marijuana clients. Burns & Levinson is currently working with regulated financial institutions and non-regulated private funds to set up first-of-their-kind cannabis lending programs. The firm is also among the top law firms in the country handling high-level corporate and financing deals in the private and public markets in the cannabis market.

Skinner joins colleagues Frank A. Segall and Scott Moskol, who co-chair the firm’s Cannabis Business & Law Advisory Group, on the “Trailblazer” roster. Segall and Moskol were named “Cannabis Trailblazers” by the NLJ in 2018.

About Burns & Levinson LLP

At Burns & Levinson, we provide high-level, client-centric and results-oriented legal services to our regional, national and international clients. We are a full-service law firm with over 125 lawyers in Boston, Denver, Providence, and London. Our areas of expertise include: business/finance, business litigation, divorce/family law, venture capital/emerging companies, employment, estate planning, government investigations, intellectual property, M&A/private equity, probate/trust litigation, and real estate. We partner with our clients to solve their business and personal legal issues in a collaborative, creative and cost-effective way. For more information, visit Burns & Levinson at www.burnslev.com. Our cannabis industry blog can be found at www.cannabusinessadvisory.com.