Green Market Report New York Awards: Best Lawyer Benjamin Rattner

At the Green Market Report New York Cannabis Business Summit in New York City on Sept. 13, we recognized some of the stellar industry players with the GMR New York Cannabis Awards.

The winner of Best Lawyer was Benjamin Rattner, a partner at Cermele & Wood LLP who has assisted several businesses in obtaining New York marijuana business permits.

Rattner is relatively new to the cannabis industry, having launched his marijuana focus after New York legalized adult-use in 2021, but one client said he’d acted as a “guiding light” through the onerous business license application period and hailed him as a legal mastermind.

Rattner said it was a “combination of personal beliefs and being in the right place at the right time” that drew him to cannabis work, given that his firm already has a footprint in a number of closely related sectors such as real estate, construction, and even the vape industry.

That diverse background helped him help his clients land permits “so they can achieve their dreams,” Rattner said, when asked what he’s proudest of so far with his marijuana practice.

But Rattner also is quick to acknowledge that cannabis has its own unique hurdles that require a lot of adaptability.

“New York’s rollout of the adult-use cannabis program has been rocky,” Rattner told Green Market Report. “That can create a lot of uncertainty about the best path(s) forward for clients.  You always want to give good advice to your clients, and in the cannabis space in New York that means getting comfortable with the uncertainty and learning to roll with the punches.”