Highly Kosher Professionals: Ali Jubelirer

JIW: What fields of law did you study at Loyola? How did serving on Loyola University Chicago Law Review give you a better understanding of your field of law?

Ali: I started law school interested in criminal law, but I struggled with the ethical issues that criminal attorneys confront on both sides of the courtroom. Employment law drew me in as an alternative because, like criminal law, it is about people and working through thorny situations. Several significant employment cases reached the Supreme Court while I was in law school, and those cases inspired me to pursue the field. I wrote my Loyola Law Review article on Bragdon v. Abbott (1998), in which the Court held that HIV is a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Researching and writing that piece taught me how to take a single case apart and understand the statute behind it, and it confirmed that this was an area of the law I found fascinating. I decided while still in law school to make labor and employment law my specialty. The same week Bragdon came down, the Court also decided Faragher v. City of Boca Raton and Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, which made employers vicariously liable for supervisor harassment, gave employers an affirmative defense if they take reasonable steps to prevent and correct it, and effectively established the anti-harassment policy framework companies still follow today. Those decisions have followed me throughout my career. Early on, I even second-chaired an oral argument before the Seventh Circuit on whether the Faragher/Ellerth defense applied to our client.

JIW: What were your regular duties while working with Groupon? How did your legal studies and experience give you an advantage in those roles?

Ali: I joined Groupon as Senior Employment Counsel, one of six attorneys responsible for all things labor and employment at what was then a fast-growing, publicly traded company with a charismatic young CEO, a local billionaire backer, and thousands of employees around the world. I was promoted several times during my seven-year tenure, ultimately to Deputy General Counsel overseeing global labor and employment, compliance, immigration, and corporate security, with a team of attorneys, a paralegal, and the security team reporting to me. Law school gave me the foundation, but what set me up for those roles was the nature of employment law itself: it is especially well suited to a start-up environment, where the facts are messy, the answers are rarely black and white, and you have to be comfortable living in the “gray.” Groupon taught me how to give practical advice at speed, which is exactly what my cannabis clients need today.

JIW: How does your Jewish identity play a role in your personal and professional life?

Ali: My Jewish identity permeates almost everything I do: how I approach people (with kindness and respect), my curiosity (I always want to learn more, ask questions, and find answers), and how I run my life day to day (I try to practice gratitude and light Shabbat candles with my family at the end of a long week). These days, with antisemitism at an all-time high, being Jewish also makes me more careful, more fearful, and more protective of my Jewish identity. That said, I feel more knowledgeable about and connected to my Judaism than at any other time in my life, which is one of the reasons I’m so grateful that Jews in Weed exists to bring us together to practice Jewish joy in our industry.

JIW: What are some of the most notable or otherwise interesting cannabis industry conventions and seminars that you’ve spoken at? Why are hosting events like that beneficial for businesses and professionals in the cannabis industry? 

Ali: I’ve spoken at many conferences, but I prefer the smaller local ones because of their intimacy. A recent example is the Grown In conference in Chicago, hosted by Brad Spirrison, where I spoke this summer on the future of hemp beverages alongside other industry operators. In any industry, conferences matter for the in-person connections, but smaller local events tend to be easier to navigate and generate more business than the mega-conferences like MJBizCon. In cannabis, these gatherings are especially important because of the volatility of the industry. I have found the cannabis industry to be a remarkably supportive space, and conferences are where we come together to learn, commiserate, plan, lean on one another, find opportunities, and try to make sense of this crazy industry.

JIW: How are the legal needs of cannabis businesses and your duties as the attorney different from representing non-cannabis businesses?

Ali: Because cannabis remains federally illegal, the legal needs of cannabis companies differ from those of other businesses, and those differences must be reflected in every agreement they sign. Terms that are standard for the average company often do not work in a cannabis contract. State regulations impose specific requirements on the transfer or sale of licenses, for example, which shape not only the overall structure of a deal (often requiring a management services agreement while the transfer is pending before regulators) but also the specific terms of the definitive agreements. Likewise, anyone who has worked in cannabis long enough has lived through economic conditions that make it hard both to pay and to get paid, so commercial cannabis contracts tend to include non-standard terms around payment, late-payment penalties, and termination. To complicate matters further, the same agreement often needs different terms depending on the state. And on the employment side, cannabis employers face issues most companies never think about, from agent-card and background-check requirements to labor peace agreements. Suffice it to say, cannabis attorneys manage a whole set of concerns, risks, and regulatory requirements that make our work different from that of any other practice.

JIW: How do you envision the federal rescheduling of cannabis impacting the cannabis businesses that you represent? 

Ali: Rescheduling will be the most significant federal shift the industry has seen, and I think it will change what it means to be a cannabis lawyer. The immediate win for operators is tax relief: moving cannabis out of Schedule I would end the Section 280E penalty that has kept so many plant-touching businesses from turning a real profit. The longer-term impact is that entirely new areas of law come into play. As a Schedule III substance, cannabis lands on the FDA’s turf, and DEA registration becomes relevant to operators in a way it never has been. Cannabis attorneys who spent the last decade mastering state licensing regimes will need fluency in FDA regulation, the pathway to an approved medical product, and DEA compliance. And if federal approval eventually allows cannabis to cross state lines, nearly every commercial agreement I draft today will need to be rethought, from distribution and delivery terms to product liability, indemnification, and insurance. Banking is the missing piece; rescheduling alone does not fix access to financial services, so the SAFE Banking Act still needs to pass. Rescheduling is not the finish line, but it is the first real step toward this industry operating like any other, and that is good news for my clients.

Ali Jubelirer is the founder of AJ Legal and a seasoned attorney and business advisor with more than 25 years of experience, including extensive work in the cannabis and hemp industries. A former cannabis operator and hemp brand founder, she brings firsthand business experience to her counsel on regulatory, transactional, employment and operational matters.