Jennifer Clifton was hired in June 2018 as the first general counsel of Orchid Ventures Inc., the Costa Mesa, California-based cannabis company. In the last year she's helped the company go public on the Canadian Securities Exchange and is currently helping Orchid expand its brand  further into the U.S.

Orchid, which already operates in Canada, California and Oregon, announced its plans earlier this month to expand to Nevada, Washington, Florida, Michigan and Massachusetts.

For now, Clifton is the sole in-house lawyer at Orchid and said she expects the legal department to grow with the company. Clifton spoke with Corporate Counsel about some of the challenges of being general counsel at a cannabis company.