Donnie Emmi is a Partner at Hoban Law Group providing more than a decade of business and legal advice to the expansive cannabis industry. After spending eight years in the United States Air Force, he began his professional career in 2005 working for a mid-size Wall Street investment banking firm as an investment and due diligence advisor focusing on private equity investments in emerging industries and technology. Seeing the cannabis industry as the next wave of investment opportunities, he quickly shifted his focus and dedicated his life to providing legal and business advice to cannabis entrepreneurs. He continues to advise investors, major cannabis brands, celebrity brands, and publicly traded companies, including presently serving as a board member and advisor to multiple large cannabis operators. In 2020, Donnie has been a strategic and legal advisor on more than $250 Million in transactions, both domestic and internationally.
Since 2015, Donnie has been providing legal and strategic business advice to the nation’s largest marijuana banking financial institution, which currently banks nearly $3 billion of marijuana related funds annually. Recently, Donnie founded the nation’s first and only fully banked cannabis escrow company, which provides transactional and escrow services throughout the cannabis industry. This one of a kind solution has been instrumental in providing safe transactional and escrow services to the cannabis industry for B2B transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and stock exchanges.
Donnie is currently the Chair of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) Banking and Finance Committee, a lifetime member of the National Cannabis Bar Association, and was fortunate to be asked to author the legal chapter in the foremost authority on marijuana banking, Navigating Safe Harbor: Cannabis Banking in a time of Uncertainty. He is frequently asked to speak to boards of directors, family offices, and private groups of high net worth individuals related to investment objectives and pathways to successful and lawful cannabis investments.