Entertainment Litigator Joins Adams and Reese

(NASHVILLE, TENN.) - Adams and Reese is pleased to announce that entertainment and intellectual property/technology litigation attorney Phil Kirkpatrick has joined the law firm’s Nashville downtown and Music Row offices as Special Counsel. Practicing his entire career in Nashville, Kirkpatrick has been a Federal Court litigator since 1979. Kirkpatrick was formerly with Dickinson Wright PLLC.

Kirkpatrick also handles products liability litigation and commercial litigation, and is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel and the Federal Bar Association. 

“Over the past 34 years, Phil has represented the interests of some of the more prominent artists, songwriters and music labels in the entertainment industry, and his background will bolster our intellectual property, entertainment and litigation practice areas,” said Brad Lampley, Partner in Charge of the Adams and Reese Nashville Office.

Kirkpatrick joins an Adams and Reese entertainment practice that for four consecutive years has been ranked in Band 1, the top tier, in Tennessee by Chambers USA. He will be working closely with Adams and Reese Partners Linda Edell Howard and Lynn Morrow in the firm’s Music Row office. Included in the music industry work Kirkpatrick has done is obtaining Federal Injunction and Seizure Orders prohibiting bootleggers from selling counterfeit goods at all venues on nationwide tours of recording artists in the U.S.

Since 1999, Kirkpatrick has been listed in Best Lawyers®, and he is currently listed in four categories: Litigation-Intellectual Property, Entertainment Law - Music, Entertainment Law - Motion Pictures and Television, and Commercial Litigation. For six consecutive years, he has been listed by Mid-South Super Lawyers® in Intellectual Property Litigation.

“Phil brings an impressive roster of clients. He is on the short list of ‘go-to’ entertainment attorneys for any substantial litigation matter arising across the country,” said Gif Thornton, Chair of the firm’s Executive Committee. “We are excited to have Phil join Adams and Reese.”

Kirkpatrick’s clients have included the Estate of Harlan Howard, the Estate of Tupac Shakur, Hall of Fame songwriter and recording artist Dave Loggins, recording artist Aretha Franklin, Universal Music Group, Full Throttle Sloonshine, LLC, Stanley Black & Decker, Atmos Energy Corporation and Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. He has represented MCA Records in prosecuting claims for unauthorized use of sound recordings of artists Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells and copyright infringement of album cover artwork of Conway Twitty. He also has represented leading small appliance, natural gas meter, and natural gas distributor, as well as propane distributor, defendants in numerous multi-million dollar bodily injury fire loss cases.

Kirkpatrick obtained both his undergraduate and law degrees from The University of Tennessee, graduating from law school in 1978, and earning his bachelor of science, with honors, in 1975.

In the community, he is an active member of the Country Music Association, and for six years he served as a Board of Trustees member and as General Counsel to Harding Academy, a K-8 Independent School in Nashville.  

Adams and Reese is a multidisciplinary law firm with more than 340 attorneys and advisors strategically located in 16 offices in 15 markets throughout the southern United States and Washington, D.C. American Lawyer includes Adams and Reese on its distinguished list of the nation's top law firms - "The Am Law 200". The National Law Journal also includes the firm on the "NLJ 250" list of the nation's largest law firms.