Amber D. Lengacher began her journey in cannabis law in 2016 while in law school at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. After turning her focus to the industry, Amber obtained a legal clerkship at Vicente LLP, a leading international cannabis law firm based in Colorado, working alongside Brian Vicente and Christian Sederberg. Amber remained employed at Vicente through graduation and bar study, first as Policy Specialist then as Associate Attorney until 2020. In those capacities, she served countless cannabis and hemp clients from small businesses to multi-state operators. She handled matters from licensing to compliance to corporate governance and more. She helped clients secure cannabis business licenses in multiple markets, including one of the first medical marijuana dispensary licenses in Missouri. She also assisted the firm’s Hemp and Cannabinoids Chair, Shawn Hauser, in preparing unprecedented legal memoranda surrounding the 2014 and 2018 farm bills. Her work with international teams on important policy projects related to the scheduling of cannabis within United Nations’ International Treaties still resonates in policy conversations today. Her policy work extended to federal, state, and local agencies all over the country as well, submitting dozens of public comments on proposed legislation or regulations, analyzing constitutional amendments and statutes, and attending innumerous regulatory and legislative committee meetings.

In 2020, Amber joined top-five multi-state cannabis operator, Trulieve Cannabis Corp., in-house first as Licensing Manager and later as Corporate Counsel. In the years that followed, she helped the company secure a Georgia Class 1 Production License (1 of 2 awarded) and obtain all regulatory approvals for the largest merger in cannabis history when Trulieve acquired Harvest Health & Recreation. Amber helped Trulieve manage compliant operations in eleven operational markets and monitored many more. In addition to overseeing all regulatory approvals during the merger, she served as Integration Manager for the legal team as Trulieve integrated Harvest operations into its own, forming the largest cannabis in the industry to date by many respects. On the legal team, she handled litigation and risk management matters, real estate transactions, corporate governance, contract review, and more.

Amber believes in creating an equitable cannabis industry, evidenced by her pro bono work with Last Prisoner Project advocating for the release of currently incarcerated, nonviolent cannabis prisoners since 2022. She also has a history of work with organizations like Dress for Success, MetroCaring, MassCultivatED, Protect Our Rivers, Women in Cannabis Expo, Food Bank of the Rockies, Sustainable Cannabis Coalition, BIPOCann, and more. At Trulieve, Amber served on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and chaired the Environmental, Social, Governance Committee.

With this unique perspective in mind, Amber founded her own consulting firm in 2022, Purple Circle, in an effort to bring industry-leading, accessible, and affordable services to emerging industries. Amber still maintains her consulting firm separate from her legal work at Kight Law Office and assists clients with licensing, compliance, and government affairs matters. Her passion for equity led her to pro bono lobbyist work with a group of Illinois Social Equity Adult-Use Cannabis Transporters in 2023 that resulted in the successful passage of a new law there to help them bring value to their licenses. Amber also volunteered for the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade’s Cannabis Business Office in 2023 as a social equity cannabis grant application reviewer and is building on that experience in 2024 by participating in BIPOCann’s Social Equity Cannabis Mentoring Program.

Outside of work, Amber enjoys spending time with her boyfriend and two cats in Colorado. She enjoys the mountains and snowboarding in winter/hiking in summer. She loves live music, reality television, and a good book. She enjoys travel and even went on an eight-month road trip back in 2022 (CHI, NM, SLC, Portland). Amber also has a passion for mentoring law school students, helping them explore additional opportunities in emerging industries, including cannabis, hemp, and more.