LAS VEGAS — A judge on Friday froze the permit process for some new Nevada retail cannabis stores, issuing a ruling that sided with companies that lost bids to open recreational pot shops.
Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez issued an injunction halting several dozen new licenses where questions were raised about the owners’ compliance with the licensing requirements.
Losing bidders argued the process was so riddled with mistakes and bias that Gonzalez should void 61 licenses that were approved last December from among 462 applications.
Attorneys for the state and some companies that won retail dispensary licenses say the process wasn’t perfect, but tax officials are fairly enforcing a voter-approved initiative that legalized recreational pot sales to adults.
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Pisanelli Bice was named in Vegas Inc.’s “Legal notes: Local award winners, Aug. 12, 2019”, highlighting a number of their top attorneys for locally won awards.
LAS VEGAS – (May 31, 2019) – James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of Pisanelli Bice PLLC, announced today that seven of the firm’s attorneys were among select lawyers recognized on the Mountain States 2019 Super Lawyers lists. Super Lawyers is a national rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.
Pisanelli, Bice and managing partner Debra L. Spinelli were honored once again as three of the leading top 100 lawyers in the mountain region, which includes Nevada, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho. Pisanelli has earned Top 100 Super Lawyers distinction every year since 2012, and the 2019 listing marks Bice’s seventh year in a row on the Top 100 list.
Spinelli was selected to the Top 50 Women Mountain States Super Lawyers list again this year. The 2019 listing marks the fourth consecutive year that Spinelli has been selected to the Top 50 Women list.
Attorneys Dustun H. Holmes, Kirill V. Mikhaylov, Ava M. Schaefer, and M. Magali Mercera were named 2019 Mountain States Rising Stars. This is Schaefer’s fourth consecutive year appearing on the list, and it is the third consecutive year that Holmes and Mikhaylov have been named Rising Stars. This is the first year that Mercera is recognized as one of the Mountain States Rising Stars.
Recognition by Super Lawyers is a prestigious and highly sought-after honor with only five percent of Nevada’s attorneys selected as Super Lawyers and 2.5 percent selected as Rising Stars. Attorneys are designated after undergoing a comprehensive nomination and evaluation process. This patented, multifaceted process includes a statewide search, nominations and evaluations of top attorneys based on peer recognition and professional achievement, as well as independent research conducted by Super Lawyers’ parent company, Thomson Reuters, the world’s most respected source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.
About Super Lawyers
Super Lawyers state and regional listings are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines, leading local and statewide publications, and metropolitan newspaper supplements across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, visit https://www.superlawyers.com.
LAS VEGAS (May 6, 2019) – James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of Pisanelli Bice PLLC, announced today that the boutique law firm has been named among the country’s best litigation firms in rankings compiled by the prestigious service Chambers & Partners.
Pisanelli Bice is one of only four Nevada firms honored in Band 1 of the Chambers USA 2019 guide for General Commercial Litigation. Chambers and Partners ranks attorneys and firms based on interviews with their clients and legal colleagues. The guide’s researchers report that Pisanelli Bice provides “quality representation in a range of commercial litigation for local gaming and hotel resorts, governmental bodies and construction companies,” and is “highly experienced at both trial and appellate level in issues arising out of corporate and real estate transactions including (mergers and acquisitions) and major property developments.”
Chambers also recognized and spotlighted both founders as outstanding litigators, as both Pisanelli and Bice are ranked as Band 1 attorneys for General Commercial Litigation.
The guide’s commentary notes that Pisanelli’s “strong litigation practice incorporates commercial, construction and healthcare expertise,” and a client states that he is a “very solid advocate.”
Bice is described as “highly regarded in the market and earns particular praise for his trial skills. He represents clients in business disputes and offers expertise in gaming matters.”
The firm has represented Caesars Entertainment, City National Bank, Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, MGM Resorts, the State of Nevada, and United Health among other high-profile clients. This is the fourth year Pisanelli Bice received a Band 1 distinction.
“We are honored that Chambers continues to recognize our commitment to excellence when serving our clients,” Pisanelli said. “Our small, professional team uses extensive experiences and acumen to provide a concerted focus in commercial litigation, ensuring our clients receive the effective representation they deserve.”
Questions have been raised about the health of Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson as the start date looms for a trial in Clark County District Court that could cost the company millions of dollars in damages.
It is unclear whether Adelson, 85, will be able to testify in the civil lawsuit brought by Hong Kong businessman Richard Suen, who has been seeking compensation from the gaming giant since 2004 over the assistance he claims to have provided Adelson and the company in landing a lucrative concession to operate casinos in Macau in the early 2000s.
Adelson, who is the largest shareholder in Las Vegas Sands, missed the company’s fourth quarter earnings conference call with analysts on Jan. 23 because he was “a little bit under the weather,” Las Vegas Sands President Rob Goldstein said at the call’s outset. A gaming source said Adelson did not attend nor participate in the company’s January board meeting associated with the call.
But comments made in open court ahead of the Suen case paint a different picture.
On Monday, during a hearing on whether Adelson would have to sit for a deposition, Las Vegas lawyer Jim Jimmerson, one of the attorneys representing Las Vegas Sands, told District Judge Rob Bare that the CEO hasn’t been seen at the company’s corporate offices since Christmas.
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