Patricia H. Heer

Patricia is a partner in the firm's Cannabis and Business Litigation Practices and one of the leading authorities on New York cannabis law and regulation. She provides comprehensive legal services to cannabis businesses throughout New York State in all aspects of cannabis business formation, licensing, regulatory compliance, transactions, and litigation.

Prior to joining Hodgson Russ, Patricia served as interim General Counsel and First Deputy General Counsel for the New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) since the agency's inception. In this role, she helped advise the agency on the cannabis regulations, revised the Cannabis Law under the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), represented the agency in significant constitutional challenges and regulatory compliance cases, and advised the agency's licensing, regulatory, enforcement, compliance, policy and operational units, as well as the Cannabis Control Board.

Patricia's cannabis practice encompasses the full spectrum of legal services for cannabis businesses across all sectors, including cultivation, dispensaries, manufacturing, processing, testing facilities and labs, delivery services, ancillary businesses, hemp, and CBD. She assists with cannabis license applications in numerous jurisdictions for all license types. She helps clients with amending applications, expanding licensed business operations, mergers, buying and selling licensed businesses, conducting due diligence, business valuations, addressing license denials (including those by local municipalities), and with True Party of Interest (TPI) restrictions. She assists social, economic, and equity licensees, and guides Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensees and their investors through their partnerships and venture concerns. Her work includes navigating and obtaining cannabis locations amidst distance restrictions, proximity protection, PCA waivers, zoning compliance, and local board approvals.

Patricia handles cannabis business formation and corporate structuring, regulatory compliance, and plan and manual development to prevent enforcement actions. She drafts and negotiates cannabis contracts, including supply and manufacturing agreements, brand licensing agreements, operating agreements, lease agreements, and employment agreements. As part of her litigation background, Patricia handles disputes related to cannabis businesses, including ownership, partnership, and investor disputes, as well as administrative hearings, Article 78 appeals, contract disputes, and license revocation questions. She also provides guidance to investors on legalization, rescheduling, anti-money laundering, and Controlled Substances Act (CSA) considerations. Her team provides guidance on cannabis intellectual property matters, including trademarks for dispensaries and brand protection, cannabis real estate matters, cannabis banking and financing, and 280E tax compliance.

Beyond her cannabis practice, Patricia has experience representing lenders enforcing remedies under loan documents in asset recovery and creditors' rights matters. She has litigated breach of contract, fraud, lender liability, breaches of fiduciary duty, and commercial claims in state, federal, and bankruptcy courts. In the bankruptcy and workout context, Patricia has advised lenders, financial institutions, funds, liquidation trusts, creditors, lessors, debtors, financing providers, distressed asset purchasers, and resolved fraudulent conveyance and preference claims. Patricia also served as sales tax counsel for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

As an adjunct to her practice, Patricia co-founded the Cannabis Law Digest, a legal online digest that curated and summarized federal and all state cannabis court decisions, cannabis agency determinations and guidance, state cannabis statutes and regulations, federal statutes and regulations impacting the industry, and new litigation commenced in the cannabis industry.

Services

Education

St. John's University, B.A.

Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, J.D.

Admissions

• New York
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York

Bar Associations

• International Cannabis Bar Association - Emerging Issues Section