Eric P. Berlin

Eric P. Berlin is a Partner at Dentons, leading the firm's US and global cannabis teams, specializing in Health Care Law. He dedicates his practice to clients involved in or impacted by the legal cannabis and hemp industries, and is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities on cannabis and hemp law, having worked on some of the industry's biggest deals.

Eric has represented large, publicly traded companies selling products or services to the cannabis industry, vaporizer manufacturers, testing labs, cultivators and processors, and dispensary operators, as well as companies involved in financing the industry. Notable matters include advising Verano Holdings Corp. in its proposed $413 million acquisition of Goodness Growth Holdings; advising Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance Inc. on cannabis regulatory matters in its $100 million Nasdaq IPO; representing XS Financial, Inc. in a US$43.5 million private placement of unsecured convertible notes; and advising The Scotts Miracle‑Gro Company in Hawthorne's $450 million purchase of Sunlight Supply Inc.'s assets. He has also represented Abbott Laboratories and Cardinal Health Inc. in high‑profile health care and antitrust litigations, including a trial in a $2.3 billion Sherman Act and Robinson‑Patman Act case, and has handled appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits.

He holds a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (1993), where he was Order of the Coif and Senior Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review, and a B.A. in Government with high honors from Dartmouth College (1989). He is admitted to practice in Illinois, New York, the District of Columbia, and numerous U.S. District Courts and Courts of Appeals.

Eric is consistently ranked as a leading practitioner: Chambers USA ranks him in Band 1 for Cannabis Law (2020–2026); The Legal 500 US names him a Leading Lawyer in Cannabis (2021–2026); and Law360 has named him MVP of the Year in Cannabis Law (2020, 2022–2023). He is President of the Illinois Cannabis Bar Association and serves on the Board of Directors of the University of Chicago GI Research Foundation.