Amy Margolis, Esq.

Amy T. Margolis has been a lawyer for 17 years, first as a public defender and criminal defense attorney and then as regulatory and corporate counsel. She frequently advises both businesses and investors on deploying capital in the cannabis space, multi-jurisdtictional growth, public offerings and every other stage of business and corporate development. Ms. Margolis also started The Initiative, a business accelerator for female founders with a mission to train and fund women in the industry. The Initiative recently welcomed their first cohort of eight female founded businesses with many more to follow.

Having touched the cannabis space for more than two decades as both an advocate and advisor, Ms. Margolis has spoken across the country and internationally on cannabis policy, infrastructure creation, implementation of medical and adult use legalization models and investment strategies. She has presented at dozens of conferences including SXSW, Israel’s CannaTech, Mj Business Daily Conferences, the Democratic Governor’s Conference, NCIA Seed to Sale Conference, the Bipartisan Women in Government Conference and many others.

Frequently called by the press as an expert on the emerging cannabis space and gender equity in the industry, Ms. Margolis has been quoted by the Washington Post, LA Times, Fox News, Elle, Wall Street Journal, CNN and The Daily Beast among others as well as featured in magazines such as Newsweek, Playboy and Forbes.

Ms. Margolis was named one of MJBiz Daily’s 2019 Women to Watch, a 2018 Industry Power Woman by Green Market Report and was named by Cannabis Business Executive as one of 2017’s 100 most powerful political people in cannabis as well as one of the 50 most important women in cannabis in 2016 and 2017. She has been named by the Portland Business Journal as one of the 40 under 40 to watch in Oregon politics, one of the 12 Pioneering Women of Cannabis by Stoner Magazine and one of the 10 Most Influential Women by Herb Magazine. She has also been named as a Super Lawyer since 2011. She won the prestigious 2018 Portland Business Journal “Women of Influence” award given to only a small group of Oregon women every year.

In addition to her speaking engagements, Ms. Margolis has been called to help numerous states with implementing legalization, has testified at the Canadian Senate, has been crucially involved in the state of Oregon siting on almost every single advisory committee for both the medical and adult use programs, as well as consulting with those helping to shape international cannabis legalization. She is active both in state government, social justice policy and has led and organized four federal lobbying trips.