WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Sean P. Coyle and Vijay S. Choksi have joined Blank Rome LLP as partners in the Corporate, M&A, and Securities group and the Cannabis industry team in its West Palm Beach office, which opened in March 2026. Coyle and Choksi bring extensive experience advising clients on complex transactions across a range of highly regulated sectors. Together, they deepen the firm’s ability to serve clients in South Florida and nationwide with transactional and regulatory counsel. They join the firm from Fox Rothschild LLP.
Coyle advises professional sports franchises, software companies, multinational corporations, and a wide range of emerging businesses, including cannabis companies, on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, private equity transactions, and corporate governance matters. He represents buyers and sellers in complex domestic and cross-border transactions and counsels companies navigating diverse regulatory regimes in the United States and abroad. He also serves as a strategic adviser on capital-raising strategies, operational and governance best practices, and long-term growth planning. His experience extends to professional franchise transactions, sponsorship and naming rights arrangements, and sweepstakes and game promotions.
Choksi is a regulatory and corporate attorney who advises operators, investors, and stakeholders on strategic corporate transactions, financing, licensing, regulatory compliance, enforcement matters, and litigation across regulated markets, including cannabis and gaming. Formerly general counsel and senior director of compliance for a Florida-based medical marijuana provider, he brings a unique in-house perspective, enabling him to counsel clients on how regulatory decisions affect day-to-day operations, growth strategy, and risk management.
Cannabis industry experience
In the cannabis industry, Coyle has played a central role in many of the nation’s largest mergers and acquisitions. He served as lead U.S. counsel to Trulieve Cannabis Corporation in the company’s $2.1-billion acquisition of Harvest Health & Recreation. He also represented Green Growth Brands Inc. in the $54-million acquisition of all outstanding shares of Spring Oaks Greenhouses Inc., enabling entry into Florida’s medical marijuana market, and has advised several multistate cannabis operators on acquisitions of cannabis licensees across jurisdictions, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Massachusetts, California, Michigan, and Arizona.
Choksi’s cannabis practice spans the full lifecycle of cannabis businesses. He advises on state and federal regulatory compliance, zoning and land-use approvals, intellectual property strategy, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) considerations. He has obtained more than 100 variance approvals for Florida cannabis operators, enabling the expansion of cultivation facilities, new product launches, and changes in corporate control. He structures and negotiates genetic license agreements for multistate operators and advises on advertising, manufacturing, and white-labeling compliance. He has also served as lead counsel on a complex strict foreclosure transaction for a multistate cannabis operator and as sole legal adviser to a nonprofit coalition of Florida’s largest cannabis companies.
More about the partners
Coyle was named an MVP in Cannabis Law by Law360 (2022), an Attorney of the Year finalist by Daily Business Review (2022), and selected for The Best Lawyers in America® for Cannabis Law in West Palm Beach (2023–2026).
Choksi is ranked by Chambers USA in Cannabis Law in the “Up and Coming” category for Eastern United States (2024) and Nationwide (2025). He is a lecturer with the National Business Institute on cannabis regulation. He is also a member of the International Cannabis Bar Association, American Health Lawyers Association, Health Care Compliance Association, and serves on the executive committee of the Palm Beach India Association.
