A lawyer in California—one of the 24 U.S. jurisdictions that have legalized medical marijuana—may ethically advise a client on how to start and operate a medical marijuana dispensary “even though the attorney may thereby aid and abet violations of federal law,” the San Francisco bar’s ethics committee concluded in a June opinion (San Francisco Bar Ass’n Legal Ethics Comm.,
The committee said the fact that federal law makes it a crime to grow, sell or possess cannabis does not mean that attorneys who counsel marijuana dispensaries on activities permitted under state law necessarily violate California Rule ...