John Moynan, general counsel at Organa Brands. (Courtesy photo.)

John Moynan started working at Organa Brands in 2014 as an intern under the company's then-general counsel while he was finishing up his law degree at the University of Colorado School of Law.

In 2016, he was asked to become the top lawyer when the company was still private. When Denver-based Organa Brands was acquired by Canadian cannabis company SLANG Worldwide, he was working as the only attorney in the legal department and was later asked to become the general counsel.

Moynan spoke to Corporate Counsel about the issues he faces as the top lawyer of a cannabis company and his plans to expand the legal department. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Corporate Counsel: When did you start working at Organa Brands?

John Moynan: I started with Organa Brands five years ago as an intern. I came in and knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial. When I started, the cannabis industry in Colorado was not nearly as big as it is today.

At the time, the company had just hired its first general counsel and I stepped into work with him as an intern. That happened to coincide with the time that I was graduating from law school and the company wanted to keep me on. I was made general counsel in 2016. At that time, the company was still privately held and I had the opportunity to grow with the company and develop professionally. Over the next two to three years, I worked as the one-man legal department.

In a one-man legal department you rely heavily on others to help you with certain parts of the process. When Organa was in the process of being acquired, my main role [was] in the back-end integration. In January, we were acquired by SLANG Worldwide. As a part of that acquisition, [SLANG Worldwide] asked that I stay in the role of general counsel [at Organa].

CC: Do you plan on expanding the legal department?

JM: We absolutely will. The first step will be to hire someone with Canadian securities expertise. After that, we expect the team to grow pretty rapidly. We haven't begun that search in earnest yet. We're relying entirely on outside counsel for Canadian filings. It's an area of expertise that no one in-house possesses and it's the hottest burning fire to where we can lean on someone to provide additional value.

CC: How do you feel you're being perceived as a young general counsel?

JM: I think that in any traditional company or industry, that may be the case. I think cannabis is the great equalizer because you have people who have been practicing other areas of the law for decades and when they're presented with a question over cannabis it is like reinventing the wheel.

A lot of us are trying to, regardless of experience, figure it out at the same pace. I don't think there is the same level of disconnect between how my counterparts view themselves and how they view me.

CC: What are some of the biggest legal challenges you face as the general counsel of a cannabis company?

JM: There are a ton of specific examples that I could give but I think the biggest challenge is the fact that it remains illegal at the federal level. If we were Coors, we would be able to manufacture the product anywhere. We can't do that. By virtue of this being so prohibitive under federal law, it's forced in-house counsel to reinvent the wheel as far as how to structure a business. We've had to come up with a new framework from the ground up. Most of the difficulties, challenges and creativity in this industry are a manifestation of that basic fact.