Katy M. Young

Katy M. Young

Katy M. Young is a founder of Ad Astra Law Group, LLP and serves as its managing partner. The firm launched in 2014 and focuses on business and commercial litigation, employment and real estate law and IP matters. Young describes herself as an activist for cannabis legalization and normalization in California and beyond. Since 2018, she’s been the president of the International Cannabis Association.

“I’d met up with two attorneys much more experienced than I was, though I knew the business side of law,” she said, naming Wendy L. Hillger, a real estate lawyer, and G. David Nied, who specializes in employment law. Hillger has since left the firm. Nied is special trial counsel.

“Among the three of us was this nice Venn diagram of services we could offer small business owners,” Young said. “David came up with our name,” from the Latin adage “Per aspera ad astra” or “Through hardship to the stars.”

Another firm motto underscores the notion of persisting amid difficulty: “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” It’s especially appropriate to the cannabis industry, Young said.

“Clients find it super challenging because of the business realities they face. Start with federal illegality and add the lack of banking. I’m still paid in cash sometimes, though that’s no longer the norm. But I’ve had clients lose their bank accounts during the course of litigation. Many banks remain very conservative, though in the last few years more have become interested in servicing cannabis clients.”

As for legalizing cannabis federally, Young has mixed feelings. “Currently, the situation keeps practitioners away from cannabis clients. For those of us brave enough to work in this area, I think a lot about how federal decriminalization will flood the lawyer market.”

In her litigation work, Young currently represents Harborside, a large Oakland dispensary, and its subsidiaries in a wrongful termination and breach of contract claims and in several supply chain lawsuits. Other clients include Steep Hill Labs, The Garden Society and Flow Kana.

She successfully defended Booney Acres, a Trinity County cannabis cultivator that is a subsidiary of Brown’s Lumber Co. LLC, against fraud claims related to a real estate purchase and the transfer of a valuable cultivation permit. American Cannabis Partners LLC v. Brown’s Lumber Co. LLC, 20CV160 (Trinity Co. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 24, 2020).

Young prevailed on a SLAPP motion in December 2021, after which Trinity County Superior Court Judge Eric L. Heryford of Weaverville granted her client $45,000 in attorney fees. The case is on appeal.

“If you love what you do, you never work a day,” Young said. “I do love it. This is my form of activism.”

– John Roemer