Jonathan Robbins starts his day early. By 6 a.m., he's on his home office computer scanning emails, and then he hits the hot sheets—dozens of newsletters from attorneys, advocacy groups, legislators and associations focused on the cannabis business. And there is a lot to read.

Robbins, who chairs the cannabis practice at Akerman, believes that when he began to collect clients in the industry back in 2013, he was one of the first Big Law attorneys to practice cannabis law in the United States.

"Back when I first started practicing, I went to a conference in Vegas called MJBizCon," he says. "At the time, it was just a bunch of guys selling nice bongs. This year, there were 28,000 people there."