Jennifer Briggs Fisher 

Jennifer B. Fisher is a partner and co-chair of the cannabis practice at Goodwin Procter LLP. The firm recruited her in 2020 to expand its cannabis work after she’d spent 14 years at Duane Morris LLP, where she was the team lead on its cannabis industry practice group.

Earlier, she worked as a legislative assistant for U.S. Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the Los Angeles Democrat who is currently a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

“I’ll be helping with his Senate run as a volunteer,” Fisher said. “I’ll knock on doors. He’s the reason I went to law school — I worked for him on the judiciary committee and became so interested in that work. He’s a brilliant lawyer and a great legislator, and he was very encouraging when I wanted to become a lawyer.”

The fusion of law, politics and cannabis — one of the fastest-growing market sectors in the U.S. — is the ideal place for Fisher to combine her interests, she said. “It’s a perfect fit. When I found the cannabis industry as an area of focus, I found new and novel legal issues that incorporate the politics I care about.”

Among them are social and criminal justice reform. Fisher serves pro bono as legal advisor to the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit seeking restorative justice for those who have faced cannabis criminalization under outdated laws. Goodwin Procter is a leading law firm partner with the group.

The effort got a boost from the work Fisher is doing with client Sean “Diddy” Combs, the billionaire hip-hop mogul, as he extends his business interests into the cannabis industry. She advised Combs on a $185 million transaction in which he is acquiring cannabis assets in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts as two established enterprises, Cresco Labs Inc. and Columbia Care Inc., merge and have been required by regulators to divest some of their holdings.

“The divested assets provided a real opportunity for Mr. Combs to come into the market,” Fisher said. Upon closing, Combs’ new entity will be the country’s first Black-owned and operated multistate cannabis operator.

“Cannabis has been rife with a terrible history of targeting the African-American community,” she continued. “And as you look at cannabis companies now in the U.S., there’s not a ton of diversity. With Mr. Combs at the helm, there’ll be a new focus on minority entrepreneurship.”

The Last Prisoner Project is working on policy reform, clemency petitions and compassionate release efforts for incarcerated cannabis inmates. “The Combs team appreciated my track record on these issues they care about,” Fisher said.

— John Roemer