Success never comes easily. For Anne van Leynseele, achieving her goals as a lawyer was not so simple either.
After spending some time in Australia doing business management consulting in the Pacific Rim, Anne came back to the United States and realized how much she enjoyed the part of her work that involved drafting, negotiating, and executing contracts. As a result, she considered going to law school. But before making that monumental decision, Anne decided to explore the world of law first hand, and she started working as a clerk at Preston, Gates & Ellis, soon to become K&L Gates while also attending the evening program at Seattle University School of Law.
While in law school, Anne created a document called “The Layperson’s Guide to Breast Cancer”. Her efforts and hard work brought her luck and she got a chance to work in the Obama Administration and contribute to the Affordable Care Act.
After an impressive four years, Anne returned to the Evergreen State where she came across a small article which stated that the federal government was denying water rights to licensed legal cannabis growers. Disappointed by such an overreaching government action, Anne decided she could do something about it. Thus began the journey of Anne van Leynseele as a regulatory and corporate cannabis lawyer.
Starting off with just herself in a rented office, Anne launched her law firm called, NWMJ Law short for Northwest Marijuana Law and later to outgrown the Northwest limitation to become 7 Point Law. Within one year, her solo firm grew to represent 118 clients all across Washington state and in 2017 it represented a quarter of Washington State’s legal cannabis industry. Anne attributes her success to looking deeper into things than just the immediate need. She considers all the angles and possible outcomes before making a decision or advising a client. She believes that this skill is vital to her success in all the cutting edge, high-risk industries that she has been drawn to her entire life.
Currently, Anne holds four degrees and is internationally known as a cannabis and hemp expert. She has owned several companies in diverse industries and is a successful regulatory cannabis lawyer and trusted business advisor. She is currently writing a much anticipated memoir on the early days of legal cannabis, which will be published before the end of 2021.
