Let's talk weed and guns!!!!! Nikki Fried, Florida’s 12th Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services, is a lifelong Floridian, attorney and passionate activist. Born and raised in Miami, Commissioner Fried graduated from the University of Florida, where she received her bachelor’s, master’s in political campaigning and juris doctor degrees. While at the University of Florida, she served as student body president – the first woman to hold the position in nearly two decades. When Nikki won her election, she became Florida’s only statewide elected Democrat, first democrat elected to the Cabinet in nearly 2 decades, and the first female ever elected to serve as Commissioner. Since taking office as Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner, she has helped build the state hemp industry, stood up for LGBTQ+ equality, and fought for clean water, improved the gun licensing process, and much more. Prior to being elected, Fried was the head of the Felony Division at the Alachua County Public Defender’s Office and worked in private practice in South Florida, defending homeowners against foreclosure during the 2007-2008 housing crisis. She also worked at law firms as a government consultant, advocating on behalf of clients before the Florida Legislature. In 2017, she formed her own firm to advocate in Tallahassee for at-risk children, the Broward County School Board, and for the expansion of patient access to medical marijuana. Throughout her career she has served with numerous organizations including the Young Lawyers Board of Governors, Chair of the Broward Days Board of Directors, Legal Needs of Children Bar Committee, LeRoy Collins Institute, Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida, University of Florida Governmental Relations Advisory Committee, University of Florida Board of Trustees, Florida’s Children First, and others. Joseph Bondy, NORML's Board Chair, was named one of America’s Top 100 Attorneys and one of the Top 100 Criminal Trial Lawyers by the American College of Trial Lawyers, Joseph Bondy is an internationally-recognized expert in criminal litigation. With over 25 years of superlative trial and federal sentencing experience, Bondy has advised thousands of clients in complex criminal defense, cannabis business and advocacy, and crisis management matters. The New York Times has described him as “eloquent and armed with the serene demeanor of a surgeon,” saying that “his oratorical intensity hovers at the evangelical.” High Times dubbed Bondy “one of the nation’s preeminent cannabis attorneys,” and his outstanding talent for defense strategy has been hailed by such outlets as CNN, Politico, and New York Law Journal, as well as legal analysts from around the world. Bondy’s unique approach to criminal defense and public media strategies were particularly praised on a global level while he represented Lev Parnas, a Guiliani associate connected to the Ukraine scandal leading to Donald Trump’s first impeachment. Bondy and Parnas’s interview on The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC) was its highest audience-drawing episode of all time, earning an Emmy nomination; and a subsequent feature on Anderson Cooper 360 was one of that program’s most-viewed episodes of the year. Bondy is a Vice President and Board Member of the Cannabis Cultural Association (CCA). A graduate of Columbia University and Brooklyn Law School, Bondy was a leading member of a team of attorneys on the seminal case Washington v Barr (2019), originally Washington v Sessions (2017), which took action against the Department of Justice with the aim to legalize cannabis federally. He is the founder of In The Know 420, a well-known podcast on cannabis law, policy and industry. Bondy is also a lifetime member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and serves on the faculty of Cardozo Law School’s Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP).
