NEW MEDIATION SERVICES! Solve your disputes before you hire a lawyer.
Russell Bennett is transitioning away from legal services and into mediation services. Recognizing that companies and people in the North American cannabis industry need more than regulatory and litigation assistance from the legal community - they need to resolve disputes BEFORE the need to hire a lawyer - Russell created an introductory mediation package.
During the last five years of practising with Cannabis Law, Russell's law firm, Russell has litigated several cases in the Ontario Provincial Court, the Ontario Superior Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal, and realized that many of these disputes would have had different and less expensive outcomes for the litigants if mediation services were accessed prior to seeking solutions from the court system.
After successfully mediating his first case in 2022, Russell fell in love with alternative dispute resolution, or ADR, and how he could bring disputing parties closer together in a manner of hours. During his first-year of law school in 1992-93, Russell brushed this class off as something weak or ineffective. However, now Russell sees ADR as the best way to begin to resolve disputes in the cannabis industry in both Canada and the United States.
Last year, Russell joined forces with Jonathan Jacobs and Marvin Huberman's Canadian Cannabis Dispute Resolution Centre to help solve problems in the floundering sector. The duo also have a US branch at Cansulted, which also offers courses, education and coaching in ADR to US clients. Stay tuned for a new book coming out by this team in 2024!
What sets Russell apart from other mediators in the sector is his knowledge of the legislation as an author of the textbook Canada's Cannabis Act: Annotation and Commentary, now in its fifth edition, but also Russell's background and training as an actor and director in the entertainment industry, giving Russell an impulsive and empathetic approach to handling people's problems, and his easy-going but probing interview style you can hear on his podcast, Cannabis Law on Earth, which just posted its 20th long-form interview. Stay tuned for an interview with Canadian snowboard Olympic gold-medallist legend Ross Rebagliati!
If you are experiencing an on-going problem in your company and you are finding it impossible to resolve it, consider hiring Russell Bennett as a mediator, who will save you money and time before deciding to hire a lawyer to fight the battle in court.
Photo credit: Photo by Micaela Parente on Unsplash