Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton Nashville Partners Named Among Top Music Lawyers by Billboard

Billboard’s annual Top Music Lawyers list recognizes the nation’s top attorneys who serve “on the front lines of the music industry’s legal battles and deals” in the categories of Talent & Litigation, Major Music Groups, Streaming, Live, Music Publishing, and Performing Rights.

Ms. Kilgore and Ms. Spahn were both recognized for their “Talent & Litigation” work, with Billboard taking a focus on Ms. Spahn’s work in the live-performance industry, including music festivals, talent agencies, talent buyers and promoters, as well as the firm’s legendary, up-and-coming and Grammy-nominated performers.

Among the most pressing issues facing the live music industry, Ms. Spahn told Billboard, is “ticketing prices, fees and practices like resales and the ongoing Federal Trade Commission investigation with regard to the antitrust claims against Ticketmaster and Live Nation.” She added, “Fans deserve to know what, and how much, they are paying for, as a lot of those fees don’t end up in the artists’ pockets.”

Ms. Kilgore’s practice focuses on intellectual property, entertainment transactional matters, and litigation. She represents a variety of entertainment industry clients, including artists, writers, producers, publishing companies, record labels, media companies, and management companies. She regularly drafts and negotiates entertainment, licensing, recording, publishing, management, joint venture and distribution agreements, as well as other entertainment and media contracts. She has served as outside general counsel since 2014 to independent record label and publishing company Black River Entertainment, which recently resigned Kelsea Ballerini in a highly publicized deal. This is her fifth selection to the Billboard list of top lawyers. Additionally, she has been selected as “In Charge” in MusicRow Magazine the last seven years, and is a member of the Recording Academy, the Country Music Association, the Academy of Country Music, and the Copyright Society of the South, among other organizations.

This is the second Billboard selection for Ms. Spahn. She represents music festivals, music publishers, record labels, technology companies, recording artists, songwriters, and other entertainment industry clients. She currently serves as legal counsel for the Women in Music Business Association and is a regular guest speaker and lecturer on matters pertaining to the entertainment industry. In addition to this Billboard selection, she is regularly featured among MusicRow Magazine’s “In Charge” and is a member of the Leadership Music Class of 2019.