As California revs up to legalize recreational marijuana use, several medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives are finding their product of choice getting wrapped up in revamped regulation, along with increased M&A work and investment deals.

Many cannabis sellers have not hired in-house counsel, and use only outside counsel to cut through the legal morass. But for at least one cannabis-related company, hiring a full-time chief legal officer was the best way to peer through the smoke.

Eaze, a technology company that connects medical marijuana patients with cannabis delivery services, hired Michael “Mickey” Brandis this summer to lead all legal affairs. Day to day, Brandis handles issues that might cross any in-house legal chief's desk: employment, intellectual property, corporate, advertising and operations matters. Where the job differs from a typical in-house role, he said, is in working with Eaze's unique business partners—cannabis dispensaries.