Medical cannabis, Credit: Shutterstock.com

Until now, the growth in the cannabis market has been largely viewed as an American phenomenon. But developments in the U.K. and Europe have spurred U.K. law firms to start taking an interest in the sector.

Among them is top 50 firm Hill Dickinson, which joins the likes of DAC Beachcroft, Memery Crystal and Mackrell Turner Garrett in formally dedicating resource to the increasingly lucrative area of medical cannabis. 

Commercially, the UN estimates that the global cannabis market across both recreational and medical spaces is worth about $150 billion a year, while a study by Barclays suggests this could nearly double to $272 billion by 2028.

As U.K. legislation puts cannabis largely off limits outside of research and medicine, Hill Dickinson is directing its focus on the drug's use in the medical and wellness sectors, according to capital markets partner Michael Bennett.

The brainchild of Bennett, health partner Jamie Foster and capital markets partner Michael Corcoran, the tentatively named 'medical cannabis practice' sits within the firm's life sciences division and borrows lawyers from across the firm's life sciences, capital markets and regulatory teams.

The firm is building on its work last year, when it advised on the NEX Growth Market float of medical cannabis products manufacturer Sativa Group, which according to Bennett was the first medical cannabis IPO in the U.K in 16 years.

Before that, the firm spent nine months understanding the complex law and investment regulations around the area at the behest of client Fastforward Innovation, which looked to invest in a Canada-based cannabis products manufacturer. Assisted by top barristers, the firm unpacked the Misuse of Drugs Act, nuances in the Proceeds of Crime Act, as well as the UN Convention on Narcotics, in helping the company make a successful investment. 

"It was a painstaking process to fully understand the law," said Bennett, all with a view to helping the client achieve their goal "without fear of prosecution". "It was groundbreaking work," he added.

Other U.K. firms to have shown interest in the market include Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy, which is developing a small niche in the area, primarily out of its France base according to a person with knowledge of the firm, spearheaded by Paris-based life sciences counsel Eveline Van Keymeulen. The firm recently advised a U.S. company on its outbound investment into leading U.K. pharma research company Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, according to a recent case study published by the firm.

Meanwhile, London boutique Mackrell Turner Garrett launched a cannabis law practice in 2018 and has since become among the best-known players in the field. A smaller, nimbler, "bolder" offering, according to cannabis specialist Elliott Rolfe, the firm is fleet-footed enough to do things that larger firms are perhaps less inclined to, given their client base and a general unease with the industry.

"Without consensus, people are scared to do what they want to," he said.

Memery Crystal too has made a concerted push in the area, this year becoming the sole legal partner to the U.K.'s Centre for Medicinal Cannabis, while DAC has also formalised its entry into the market, with lead partner Jonathan Deverill writing extensively on the topic during the year.

Other firms forging a path into the field include Osborne Clarke and Bird & Bird, albeit with a focus on the Europe-leading German market. In April, Bird advised Aphria Deutschland in securing a licence to cultivate the drug, while in May OC advised German cannabis investment firm Sanity Group on a multimillion-pound financing round.

As with most U.K.-focused firms in the area, Hill Dickinson's target is medical cannabis, as moving into the recreational space is for the time being "a stretch too far", according to Bennett, and depends on the changing political tides and the likelihood of decriminalisation, which he suggests will probably happen, "but not in the near term". Similarly, Rolfe muses that the U.K.'s Food Standards Agency is unlikely to make a "huge anti-commercial decision" that forecloses a potentially multibillion-pound industry.  

But Bennett highlighted the role law firms can play in a narrative that extends far beyond the drug's commercial value, and that firms, alongside pharmas and laboratories, can help rid the market of a stigma that has hampered important and potentially life-changing developments in medicine.

"Children who suffer life-debilitating diseases, they take cannabis-based medicines and their seizures stop," he said, adding that people need to get over their initial "giggling", and that the language around the the drug needs to move away from tropes linking it only to recreational activity and society's margins.

"We need to focus on opening up the medical space in the U.K.," he said. "The more law firms, pharmas and laboratories that get into the space, the better."

The U.K. cannabis movement mirrors a trend developing across the Atlantic, which has seen U.S. firms such as Quinn Emanuel tap into a thriving market, particularly following the decriminalisation of the drug in Canada and U.S. states California and Colorado.