John W. Shenk

John W. Shenk

Founding Partner John W. Shenk is a litigator focused on shareholder and derivative, cannabis, and business disputes. With extensive experience in partnership disputes and the personal nature of fights within businesses, John has come to refer to his specialty as “business divorce.”

John helps his clients understand their rights and assert them effectively, whether they be partners, shareholders in a corporation, members of an LLC, or joint venturers of any manner. In some instances, this requires diplomatic negotiation or out of court arbitration. In others, it may demand bare-knuckled litigation. In all cases it is a strategic process that John navigates with agility, finesse, and force when needed. 

John has handled some of the most prominent shareholder and investor litigation in the legal cannabis industry. These complex disputes have their own shape and character, and John’s successes on behalf of clients confronting managers intent upon self-dealing and, at times, outright fraud, place him at the forefront of litigation in the legal cannabis industry. 

In these contexts, John has extensive experience with partnership and shareholder disputes, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud claims, unfair competition, trade secret misappropriation, and real estate litigation. 

Representative Matters

• Vindicated investor right to exercise option to acquire shares in start-up cannabis company resulting in a substantial cash payout along with shares in the company.
• Asserted member / shareholder rights in one of the country’s largest cannabis ventures against self-dealing managers, resulting in client obtaining 20x the shares managers attempted to distribute.
• On less than 24-hour turnaround, defeated surprise application for temporary restraining order brought against cannabis business by one of its investors.
• Defended real estate developer against claims by former business partner seeking to share profits in a later transaction; defeated all claims in their entirety.
• Defended LLC manager against investor derivative claims of self-dealing and breach of fiduciary duty; defeated all claims in their entirety.
• Pursued LLC manager of cannabis extraction company who absconded with investor funds.
• Resolved board member / shareholder deadlock in closely held corporation by negotiating terms for appointment of neutral board member, permitting manufacturing company to emerge out of operational stagnation.
• Removed a toxic shareholder / manager who was crippling a company’s growth.
• Enforced trade secret and confidentiality rights of partnership against expelled toxic partner; enforcement of non-compete agreement under California law.
• Negotiated the terms for quickly dissolving a law partnership for partner to move to a more lucrative opportunity without losing value or breaching duties to partners or clients.
• Provided strategic advice to option-holding employee in departure from current employment to start entrepreneurial venture without losing upside potential in existing company or exposing himself to claims of trade secret theft.

Education

John attended Stanford University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 2001. John earned his Juris Doctor and his M.B.A. from the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law and Marshall School of Business, respectively, in 2008.

Bar Admissions

John is a member in good standing of the State Bar of California, admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of California and all of California’s lower state courts, each of the United States District Courts for the Southern, Central, Eastern and Northern Districts of California, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professional Affiliations

John is a member of ProVisors, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the International Cannabis Bar Association.