The Psychedelic Bar Association
The Psychedelic Bar Association is an association of accomplished attorneys and paralegals from all practice areas and perspectives -- corporate, constitutional, intellectual property and regulatory attorneys, impact litigators, in-house counsel, policy analysts, and criminal justice reformers -- dedicated to solving the novel legal and policy issues impacting the emerging psychedelics sector.
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The Psychedelic Bar Association Leadership Team
Nicole Howell: Interim Co-Executive Director & Founding Board Co-Chair
Nicole Howell (she/her) practices law, inquiry, meditation, journeying, and being here now. She is the co-founder of Clark Howell LLP, California's leading women-owned law firm serving the cannabis and hemp industries and leaning into discussions around the culture and ethics of psychedelics legalization and commercialization. Nicole has been working against prohibitionist drug laws since the beginning of her career and is passionate about the cognitive, therapeutic, and spiritual healing that results from the perspective shift psychedelics provide. Today, Nicole’s sincere hope is to be a part of finding solutions to the question of how to harness “just enough” of the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit that exists in our culture and markets to fuel thoughtful access while not letting a free market, free-for-all swallow the movement whole. She believes unequivocally that when we show up with a beginner’s mind, and with curiosity, honesty, and generosity, we are capable – individually and collectively -- of transformation beyond limit. Nicole has been recognized as one of the top 75 “Most Important Women in Cannabis” by Cannabis Business Executive, of the “30 Most Powerful Cannabis Lawyers” by MG Magazine, annually ranked by Super Lawyers magazine since 2012, and recognized for several years running as an “Attorney to Watch” by Chambers and Partners USA. Nicole regularly speaks, teaches, and writes on the topics of cannabis and hemp law and business, and drug policy reform for plant medicines and other emerging therapeutics. She currently serves on the board of the North Star Project. She lives in the mountains by a sweet creek and is available worldwide by the magical power of the internet.
Ismail Ali: Founding Board Co-Chair
Ismail Lourido Ali, JD (he/him or they/them) has been personally utilizing psychedelics in celebratory and spiritual contexts for over fifteen years, and has been actively participating in the drug policy reform movement since 2013. As the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Ismail advocates to eliminate barriers to psychedelic therapy and research, develops and implements legal and policy strategy, and supports MAPS’ strategy, organizational development, and ethics work. Ismail presently serves on the Board of Directors for Sage Institute in the California bay area. Ismail advises, is formally affiliated with, or has served in leadership roles for numerous organizations in the drug policy reform ecosystem, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Chacruna Institute, and the Ayahuasca Defense Fund. In addition, Ismail works with clients on matters related to the religious use of psychedelics as sacrament.
Kathryn Tucker: Interim Co-Executive Director & Founding Board Member
Kathryn Tucker is Special Counsel at Emerge Law Group, where she Co-Chairs the Psychedelic Practice Group. Across her 30 year career her work has focused on advocacy to protect and expand the rights of the terminally ill. She served as Executive Director of the End of Life Liberty Project (ELLP), which she founded during her tenure as Executive Director of the Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC), the nation’s oldest disability rights advocacy organization. Tucker served two decades as Director of Advocacy and Legal Affairs for Compassion & Choices. Prior to that, she practiced law with Perkins Coie. Professor Tucker has held faculty appointments at Loyola / Los Angeles, the University of Washington, Seattle University and Lewis & Clark, Schools of Law, teaching in the area of law, medicine and ethics at the end of life. Tucker was part of the team that succeeded in enacting the nation’s first state law permitting psilocybin therapy (Oregon Measure 109, 2020). She serves as lead counsel representing a palliative care physician and an oncology clinic in the first effort to apply Right to Try laws to psilocybin therapy, AIMS et al v DEA.
Hadas Alterman: Founding Board Member
Hadas Alterman is a Founding Partner at Plant Medicine Law Group. She has a J.D. from Berkeley Law and a B.A. in Community Studies/Agriculture & Social Justice from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Hadas advises cannabis and psychedelic companies on regulatory compliance, policy advocacy, risk management, strategic planning, alternative finance structures, corporate governance, dispute resolution, and transactional matters. Prior to founding PMLG, she worked with a leading cannabis law firm in San Francisco. Hadas has led clients through successful cannabis license applications in California, Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; served as counsel to equity applicants in Oakland and San Francisco, and works with legacy growers in the Emerald Triangle. Hadas is a former restorative justice practitioner and community organizer dedicated to using the law to expand equitable access to plant medicine. Hadas was the Policy Director of NYMHA, an organization that she co-founded that successfully lobbied for the introduction of a New York bill to decriminalize psilocybin by statute, and serves on the Equity Subcommittee of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board.
Ariel Clark: Founding Board Member
Ariel Clark (she/her) is an attorney, activist, and co-founder of Clark Howell LLP, a women-steered law firm focused on cannabis, hemp and psychedelics. Ariel walks the Red Road and is on a healing path. She is biracial, Odawa Anishinaabe and mixed European descent. After practicing law at California Indian Legal Services, she started her own firm in 2010, to be of service to the plants and communities she is in deep connection with. Ariel is General Legal Counsel to Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines and is a member of the Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants. She has been involved in numerous drug policy, social equity and justice reform efforts in her life. Among other organizational leadership roles, she founded and ran the Los Angeles Cannabis Task Force, she co-founded and serves on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Cannabis Law Section, and she co-founded the Cannaboss Womxn’s Circle. Her organization affiliations have included the International Cannabis Bar Association, the California Native American Cannabis Association, and the California and National Cannabis Industry Associations. She has been recognized by Rolling Stone as one of 18 “Women Shaping The Culture of Tomorrow”; Cannabis Business Executive as “75 Most Important Women in Cannabis”; mg Magazine as “30 Most Powerful Cannabis Lawyers”; and Entrepreneur’s “Top 100 Cannabis Leaders.” She is licensed in California; J.D., University of California Berkeley School of Law (2005); B.A. in Religious Studies, University of Michigan (2000).
Terry Gross: Founding Board Member
Terry Gross has engaged in significant complex litigation on behalf of private clients and civil liberties organizations for over 35 years. Mr. Gross was the first general counsel to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization focusing on first amendment issues surrounding Internet-based technology. He is a founding board member and vice-president of the Burning Man Project, was its General Counsel for over twenty years. Mr. Gross advises and litigates extensively in the blockchain and cryptocurrency area, representing blockchain luminaries in various litigation and business matters, and is General Counsel and a founding director of the EOS Alliance, a nonprofit addressing governance issues in EOS cryptocurrency, and is General Counsel of Helios, an entity dedicated to furthering the EOS ecosystem. He is also the Executive Director of the Brock Pierce Foundation, with a philanthropy focus on environmental issues, plant medicine and social justice. Mr. Gross regularly litigates cases in which he defends constitutional rights, such as representing non-traditional religions in various types of litigation raising issues of religious freedom, due process, and improper government activity, both in affirmative lawsuits and in defending damage lawsuits by ex-members; represents journalists and news organizations; and recently had a victory in a wrongful conviction case. Mr. Gross also has an active practice representing victims of clergy abuse and sexual abuse.
Craig Guthery: Founding Board Member
Craig Guthery has over twenty years of experience as a general commercial litigator, representing a wide variety of corporate and individual clients. He has significant expertise in matters involving science and technology, particularly in the areas of computer software and services, the Internet, and biopharmaceuticals. In 2018, Mr. Guthery expanded his practice to include advising and counseling psychedelic-assisted therapy providers in international settings. Before venturing out on his own, he was a partner at FH+H and Special Counsel at Cooley. He practices primarily in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Roman Haferd: Founding Board Member
Robert “Roman” Haferd (he/him) is the Restorative Justice Coordinator for the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, where he has helped build a nationally-recognized restorative justice program inside Washington DC’s Justice Department. In the psychedelics space, Roman serves as the Director of Community Engagement for the Plant Medicine Coalition, a non-profit hub and advocacy organization that promotes safe, equitable access to psychedelic and plant medicines. In 2020, Roman was a Steering Committee Member of the successful Decriminalize Nature DC campaign to pass Initiative 81, the Entheogenic Plant and Fungus Policy Act, which made entheogenic substances among the lowest law enforcement priorities in Washington DC. Prior to joining the AG’s office, Roman worked as a Senior Program Associate with the Restorative Justice Project at Impact Justice, an Oakland, California-based research and innovation institute. Roman has also represented civil rights plaintiffs in cases around the country involving deprivations of Constitutional rights and law enforcement misconduct. He previously worked as a Senior Associate in the Litigation & Controversy Department of international law firm WilmerHale LLP's Washington, DC office. Roman has a Bachelors of Arts from Bucknell University in Economics and Philosophy, and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.