NY: Group for small cannabis farmers sues state and warns industry ‘at risk of collapse’

ALBANY — A lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of the Cannabis Farmers Alliance accuses the state Office of Cannabis Management and Cannabis Control Board of pushing growers with small operations to the brink of financial ruin as their industry faces potential collapse.

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The lawsuit alleges that the “OCM’S rollout of legalized cannabis in New York has been disastrous” and that regulators ignored public concerns about its rules that have handicapped the industry’s early stakeholders, many of whom leveraged nearly all of their assets to invest in a share of the nascent market.

Despite licensed growers’ harvested products being ready for sale, a lack of sufficient retailers has contributed to their financial struggles while an illicit marketplace has boomed across the state over the past three years, even with increased enforcement efforts.

The goal had been for cannabis growers and state regulators to “move in lockstep. However, that is far from the case,” according to the lawsuit.

Dean concentrates his practice in complex commercial litigation, as well as financial litigation, intellectual property matters, construction litigation, and healthcare law. Dean has represented privately and publicly held corporations in a wide variety of civil litigation in state and federal courts both regionally, and around the country. His representative matters include: contract disputes, construction litigation (design and construction claims both as plaintiff and defendant), defending numerous entities in matters brought by the New York Attorney General’s office, securities class actions and white collar investigations, healthcare litigation, computer software litigation (licensing agreement and copyright disputes), and patent and trademark litigation.After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, he received his Juris Doctor from the Columbia University School of Law in 1998, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Dean began his career at Clifford Chance in New York City, before moving to Boston where he litigated at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and then Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault. Dean was also Assistant General Counsel to Fresenius Medical Care, the world’s leading provider of dialysis products and services, and law clerk for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Dean is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Syracuse University College of Law, teaching courses in E-Discovery; as well as Mediation Skills. Dean has extensive expertise in the discovery of electronically stored information, and has taught numerous seminars on the topic, including at: the annual meeting of the Judiciary for the Fifth Judicial District, State of New York (September 2015); the Annual Meeting of the County Attorneys Association for the State of New York (May 2016); a national webinar for the Federal Bar Association (August 2016); the American Bar Association Section of Alternative Dispute Resolution’s Annual Conference in 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022; and most recently a NYSBA webinar on E-Discovery basics.

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