Taite McDonald, Esq.
Taite R. McDonald is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office and a member of the firm's Public Policy & Regulation Group. Ms. McDonald focuses her practice at the intersection of innovation and government. She is especially well versed in running complex, cross-government matters with intricate legal, policy and financing components. Ms. McDonald's is highly knowledgeable in several areas, including energy technology commercialization, federal energy procurement, biofuels, cannabis, hemp, innovative U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contracting, and government grants and loan guarantees. Ms. McDonald provides counsel to companies of all sizes, from early stage startups to Fortune 100 companies and large utilities. She has successfully represented clients in obtaining government contracts, non-dilutive funding in excess of $100 million, loan guarantees and conditional commitments in excess of $1 billion, and achieving complex policy and legislative objectives. Ms. McDonald regularly plays a pivotal role in assisting clients to overcome gating obstacles and achieve new and innovative legislative objectives for emerging markets and technologies by forging key partnerships with federal agencies, industry, trade groups and other government-facing bodies.
In terms of cannabis work, Ms. McDonald has led an informal multi stakeholder business coalition in advocating for a cannabis banking safe harbor on behalf of a client. Additionally, she has led an multiagency effort to develop hemp remediation and extraction standards to ensure farmer protections and consumer safety of hemp and CBD products. Ms. McDonald has also assisted numerous banks, retailers, hemp growers and CBD producers in reviewing and developing standards and risk-mitigated strategies for pursuing this rapidly evolving market.