Axel Bernabe is Assistant Counsel for Health to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. In this role, he oversees all legal and policy deliberations in the health portfolio and provides strategic counsel to the operations, press, and budget teams in the Executive Chamber and the State Department of Health.  As part of his responsibilities, Axel oversees the development and implementation of all medical, hemp, and adult-use cannabis initiatives in the State. Over the past four years he has directed and supervised the expansion of the medical cannabis program and the launch of the State's hemp program. Axel is also responsible for driving the administration's proposed Cannabis Act that would comprehensively regulate all segments of the cannabis economy, including the creation of a new Office of Cannabis Management that would permit the implementation of an adult-use program.

Prior to joining the Cuomo administration, Axel was a partner at the law firm of Constantine Cannon, where he was a nationally recognized legal expert in the healthcare sector, particularly on antitrust matters.

Robert L. Greenberg is a Registered Patent Attorney licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office as well as the courts of New York, New Jersey, Texas, and several federal district and appellate courts.

Mr. Greenberg is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School where he served as articles editor of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review and excelled in the Moot Court Competition.  While in law school, he worked in the chambers of a federal judge in Manhattan.  He joined the Campbell chapter of law fraternity of Phi Alpha Delta at Michigan.

He also earned his Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University.  He received his Bachelor of Arts Magna Cum Laude with High Honors in Economics from Brandeis University, where he was a Justice Louis D. Brandeis Scholar and a Brandeis National Merit Scholar.  His academic writings include issues such as medical marijuana, wireless security vulnerabilities, open-source software development, application of election law to the Internet, and the copyright of orphan works.

Since graduating law school, he has served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York City handling hundreds of criminal matters.  He has also worked at several boutique patent and intellectual property firms, where he has handled numerous matters for U.S. and international corporations as well as individual inventors.

In addition to his firm, Mr. Greenberg serves as a Major / Judge Advocate in the New York Guard where he provides free legal services for soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guardsmen, and their families.  Mr. Greenberg is also an adjunct professor at Farmingdale State College, State University of New York in the School of Engineering Technology, and he is an educational content writer at the National Paralegal College.

Kristin L. Jordan is senior counsel with the Cannabis Law practice group at Greenspoon Marder LLP. She has over 20 years of real estate, state licensing, and governmental regulatory experience. In addition to her legal practice, Ms. Jordan is a Co-Founder of the Cannabis Cultural Association and served as its first Executive Director.  She is also the Founder of Mannada, a NYC-based professional event production company serving the cannabis industry, which produces the Cannabis Law Summit, Cannabis Media Summit, Cannabis Real Estate Summit, Cannabis Medical Summit, and The Maze, a weekly event listing newsletter.

Kristin currently serves as Regional Representative for the National Cannabis Bar Association, is a member of the Committee on Cannabis for the NYS Bar Association, serves on the Public Policy Committee of the Minority Cannabis Bar Association, facilitates the Asian Cannabis Roundtable, and acts as the East Coast Representative for Asian Americans for Cannabis Education.

Jason Klimek focuses his practice on startup and small to mid-sized technology companies. He advises clients on entity selection, taxation, funding, employment matters, and securities transactions. In addition, he advises clients on various complex taxation issues affecting business owners.

Jason has experience with many different types of businesses in a variety of sectors. As a technology enthusiast and founder, he works extensively with technology companies advising them on protection of intellectual property, drafting licensing agreements and privacy policies that comport with various privacy laws throughout the United States and Europe. In addition, Jason advises physicians regarding employment contracts as well as HIPAA.

Brian’s practice includes the interrelation between patent law and food and drug law. Brian's regulatory experience includes all types of FDA regulated products: drugs and biologics (including animal drugs and biologics), medical devices, foods and dietary supplements, tobacco products, and cosmetics. Brian's intellectual property experience includes FDA and patent litigation for both innovator and generic companies, as well as patent prosecution for life science companies.

Immediately prior to law school, Brian worked as a legislative correspondent in the US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He began his legal career as a regulatory counsel at the US Food and Drug Administration, where he worked for more than nine years in both the Office of the Commissioner and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. At FDA, he focused on new product evaluations, compliance issues related to clinical investigations and intellectual property (e.g., patent term restoration). Brian's work resulted in new product approvals as well as new industry guidance documents and policies, such as the animal efficacy rule for counter-terrorism products. Following several years of practice in an FDA law firm, Brian returned to university to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry. Since then, Brian has had a hybrid practice, focusing on FDA and intellectual property law, in a law firm environment with a business focus for life science companies.

Brian has been actively involved in promoting the biotechnology community locally, nationally and internationally. Locally, Brian is working with BioBuzz to help stimulate a more active bioscience workforce and a more dynamic bioscience industry throughout Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and beyond. Brian has worked with the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development to present a program on "Innovative Strategies for New Product Development" and has been involved in the Biomanufacturing Technology Summit (biosimilars) sponsored by the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) at the University of Maryland. In addition, Brian has served on a board of judges for local entrepreneur contests at the University of Maryland's Mtech Biotechnology Research and Education Program and had been featured as a guest lecturer: "Entrepreneurship for Life Sciences Lessons in Start-Ups for Life Sciences Innovation". He also currently mentors several health law students through a program coordinated by the Maryland State Bar Association's health law group. Nationally and internationally, Brian has worked with life science companies to promote new and innovative technologies, including emerging growth companies.

Patty concentrates her practice on civil litigation, administrative law, and appellate work, representing both private and public entities in environmental law, land use and zoning, and regulatory law. Patty works collaboratively with clients across multiple industries to achieve their unique goals, whether to permit a large industrial or commercial project or to defend those projects against legal challenges. 

Patty regularly represents clients before administrative agencies that include the NYS Public Service Commission and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation as well as the trial and appellate courts across New York State.

Patty previously worked for judges at all levels of the court system, from the trial level through the intermediate appellate courts to the California Supreme Court and uses her knowledge of the judicial decision-making process to inform her case strategy, preparation, and presentation.

As Counsel at Barclay Damon LLP, John serves clients from a nearly 300-attorney, superregional platform of offices across the Northeastern United States and Toronto. Clients seek long-term planning assistance from John, to position themselves to respond to developments in cannabis laws and regulations. With that, clients rely on John to direct their cannabis projects, including governmental licensing, property right acquisition, compliance, and organizational structure. In developing resources for others in the legal profession, John is actively involved with the State Bar’s Committee on Cannabis Law.

In addition, John represents clients in litigation and transactional matters in other highly-regulated industries, like energy/utilities and consumer lending. To properly shape lawsuits and appeals and keep them on course as vehicles to resolve disputes, John learns clients’ business objectives. Hurdles overcome by John’s clients have involved tortious interference, compliance issues, clashes over goods/services contracts, secured transactions, and real property rights.

David Oxenford has represented broadcasters for over 35 years on a wide array of matters from the negotiation and structuring of station purchase and sale agreements to regulatory matters. His regulatory expertise includes all areas of broadcast law including the FCC’s multiple ownership limitations, the political broadcasting rules, EEO policy, advertising issues, and other programming matters and FCC technical rules.

His clients range from family-owned broadcasters to active mid-market venture-backed companies to one of the largest noncommercial radio licensees in the country. In addition to representing station groups, David represents a number of state broadcast associations, the trade association for media brokers, program and service providers to the broadcast and digital media industry and banks and others providing financing to media companies.

David also represents webcasters and other digital media companies. He represents these companies on copyright, music licensing and other business and regulatory issues. He was counsel to the small webcasters group which negotiated the first Small Webcasters Agreement with the recording industry in 2002, represented webcasters who negotiated the Pureplay Webcasters Agreement in 2008, and represented webcasters in litigating sound recording performance royalties in both of the webcasting rate setting proceedings held by the Copyright Royalty Board which led to decisions in 2010 and 2015.

David is a regular speaker at broadcasting and digital media conferences, conventions and trade shows across the country, and regularly conducts webinars for many trade associations. He has also served as an expert witness on broadcasting and music licensing issues. For over 10 years, he has been the editor and principal writer of the Broadcast Law Blog, which is read by thousands of people each week.

He has been active internationally in counseling developing countries on the development of media laws embodying democratic principles.  

Shanita Penny, MBA is a cannabis advocate, business professional and entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience helping world class companies and startups solve complex issues and improve business performance in multiple industries. In 2015, Shanita took a leap of faith and founded Budding Solutions, a boutique cannabis consulting firm based in Baltimore, MD, to provide Management and Strategy Consulting to startups, small businesses and multistate operators in the cannabis industry.

As an internationally recognized management consultant and certified Project Management Professional, Shanita brings an essential skillset coupled with immense passion to the cannabis industry. Budding Solutions supports cannabis advocates, business professionals, entrepreneurs and policy-makers nationwide to achieve exceptional results. She has helped clients establish and scale compliant, successful cannabis businesses, while simultaneously empowering them to positively impact the burgeoning cannabis industry and the greater community.

Shanita proudly serves as President of the Board of Directors for the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), the first non-profit organization created specifically to progress the cannabis industry by increasing diversity through the creation of equal access and economic empowerment for cannabis businesses, their patients, and the communities most affected by the war on drugs. She is also a member of the New Jersey Cannabis Industry Association’s (NJCIA) Board of Trustees. NJCIA is a nonprofit trade association dedicated to advancing the legalization of cannabis by promoting sensible policy for the responsible development and growth of a legalized cannabis-based economy.

Jeffrey Schultz joined Navy Capital in November 2018 as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer and was named Partner in 2019. Navy Capital is a private fund manager that invests exclusively in the legal cannabis industry. Mr. Schultz brings more than 12 years of experience as an attorney in the hedge fund and private equity fund industry. Prior to joining Navy, Mr. Schultz served in senior roles for both hedge funds and private equity funds where he oversaw all legal and compliance matters and was instrumental in designing and building an institutional legal, compliance and operational infrastructure for two different rapidly growing emerging fund managers. Mr. Schultz began his career in private practice as an associate in the investment management practices of Bingham McCutchen LLP and Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.   

Dr. Karl Gerard Williams has been a member of the Wegmans School of Pharmacy faculty since 2007. He teaches courses in Pharmacy Law, Ethics, and Counseling. His continuing professional mission is to improve public health through direct patient education; enabling patients to identify therapeutic effect, recognize and manage side-effects, and achieve success in pharmacotherapy.

Prior to joining St John Fisher College, Dr. Williams served on the faculty at the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy and St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Allied Health. In addition, he has maintained clinical and administrative practice for over 30 years at Myers Community Hospital, Moses Ludington Hospital, Mckesson Medication Management, and Little Falls Hospital.

Williams earned his B.S. in pharmacy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. In addition, he has earned an M.S. from the University of Rochester Toxicology Training Program, J.D. from the University of Kentucky, and an LL.M. in Law and Technology from Syracuse University.

He has authored over 100 scholarly works with interests relating to patient safety, risk minimization, professional practice, civil rights, labor, ethical corporate management, and education. Dr. Williams is a contributing member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pharmacy Practice. He is licensed to practice pharmacy in New York, Kentucky, the New England states, and Pennsylvania, and is admitted to the practice of law in New York and Kentucky.

Including serving as the chair of the Biologics Law Committee in the New York State Bar Association Food and Drug Law Section, Dr. Williams is active in numerous professional organizations including, as past-president the Pharmacy Society of Rochester and the Rochester-area Society of Health System Pharmacists. In addition, he is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York. Dr. Williams serves as a pro bono trial officer on the Surrogate Decision-Making Committee for the NYS Justice Center.

The students of Wegmans School of Pharmacy have honored Dr. Williams with the Teacher of the Year award in 2008 and 2010, and the Advisor of the Year Award in 2014.