Vice President of Legal & Compliance
About the role
Mining cannabis can be a challenging but rewarding business. Minnesota Cannabis Services is a company that provides legal, compliance, operational, and corporate support to cannabis clients across several states. Our clients range from retail to manufacturing, cultivation, transportation, and delivery. We are now looking for a Vice President of Legal & Compliance to lead the legal and compliance function for our clients.
Responsibilities
Partner with company leadership and client executives as a strategic advisor, providing legal insight on major decisions and long-term planning across the businesses we support.
Ensure our clients adhere to all federal, state, and local cannabis laws across every market and license type — retail, manufacturing, cultivation, transportation, and delivery.
Develop and maintain deep, current expertise across our multi-state regulatory landscape.
Architect, draft, and implement comprehensive governance and compliance frameworks across a large portfolio of client entities.
Maintain audit readiness at all times.
Monitor legislative developments, advise on their impact, and engage directly with lawmakers, regulators, and bipartisan industry coalitions to help shape favorable policy on behalf of our clients and the industry.
Manage the attorneys, paralegals and legal operations professionals to plan workload, prioritize across clients, and deliver high-quality work ahead of deadlines.
Lead real estate and transactional work on behalf of a leading cannabis real estate fund that delivers turnkey operational facilities to licensees — including acquisitions, leasing and subleasing to tenant-operators, and the agreements that support facility delivery, in partnership with the construction and facilities team.
Manage zoning and land use matters for client and fund facilities, and work directly with municipalities to secure approvals for new locations.
Partner with Human Resources on complex labor and employment matters affecting our clients' workforces, including union dynamics, training, and sensitive employee relations.
Oversee litigation strategy and manage outside counsel on behalf of our clients, with rigorous control of scope and spend.
Identify, assess, and mitigate legal risk across the client portfolio through proactive programs and regular compliance audits.
Qualifications
Juris Doctor with active bar membership in good standing (Minnesota admission or ability to obtain promptly).
8+ years of legal experience, including senior in-house leadership.
Demonstrated success managing and developing legal operations teams.
Deep multi-state regulatory compliance experience in cannabis — or a comparably regulated, multi-state industry (alcohol, pharmaceuticals, gaming, tobacco, or retail franchises).
Direct cannabis experience is strongly preferred.
Experience serving multiple operators or working in a management services, professional services, or multi-client environment strongly preferred.
Multi-unit or multi-state retail legal experience strongly preferred — high-volume leasing, zoning and municipal approvals, and labor matters across jurisdictions.
Franchising or other multi-entity systems experience a plus, particularly building replicable governance across many entities.
Exceptional attention to detail and the ability to manage many priorities simultaneously.
Strong people- and process-management skills, sound judgment, and the confidence to make and own decisions.
Genuine enthusiasm for technology and AI in legal practice.
The highest ethical standards.