Chris Vlahos is an experienced litigator who represents and advises a variety of music, media, technology, book publishing and other business clients with respect to intellectual property, entertainment and other complex commercial disputes in his work at Ritholz Levy Fields LLP. Chris has significant experience in state and federal court, before the American Arbitration Association, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and in concert with mediators and private arbitrators to reach favorable resolutions.
Chris’ experience includes representing music publishers, labels, and artists in numerous copyright infringement actions; defending insurance companies in litigation, culminating with a seven-week jury trial, regarding coverage for a local mall after the 2010 Nashville flood; defending several successful recording and touring artists at trial in disputes with managers regarding post-term commissions; representing recording artists, music publishers, and record companies in numerous contractual disputes; representing book publishers in a variety of disputes with authors and/or other book publishers; defending a musical group’s right to trademark in litigation against similarly named band; and defending a publicly-traded company’s right to use a trademark with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
Chris is a native of Nashville, and graduated with honors from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1999 and with honors from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1995, where he majored in English Literature and was a Whittle Scholar and National Merit Scholar. Chris has served on the Executive Committee for the Sports and Entertainment Section of the Tennessee Bar Association since 2008, for which he was the Chair in 2013 and 2015. Chris also actively participates on behalf of the Volunteer Lawyers and Professionals for the Arts in representing local artists in resolving legal issues.
Best Lawyers:
Intellectual Property Litigation (2014-16)
Commercial Litigation (2015-16)
Entertainment Litigation (2014-16)
2015 Lawyer of the Year (Nashville): Entertainment Law: Motion Pictures and Television
Chambers and Partners:
Media and Entertainment: Up and Coming (2016)
Speaking Engagements:
Presenter – CONTRACTS: REGNEGOTIATE, SUCK IT UP OR LAWYER UP, 25th Annual North American Sports, Entertainment and IP Conference, Montego Bay, Jamaica (November 9, 2013)
Presenter – ETHICAL SCENARIOS AND PRO BONO REPRESENTATION FOR ENTERTAINMENT LAWYERS, TBA Entertainment and Sports Law Forum, Nashville, Tennessee (May 2014)
Presenter – THE BAND DID NOT GO ON, 26th Annual North American Sports, Entertainment and IP Conference, Liberia, Costa Rica (November 13, 2014)
Presenter – BRINGING FOCUS TO THE BLURRED LINES VERDICT, TBA Entertainment and Sports Law Forum, Nashville, Tennessee (May 2015)
Presenter – ENTERTAINMENT LITIGATION PRACTICE IN THE TRENCHES, 27th
Annual North American Sports, Entertainment and IP Conference, Cancun,
Mexico (November 12, 2015)
Presenter – THE ANATOMY OF AN ARTIST-MANAGEMENT RELATIONSHIP WITH AN EMPHASIS OF THE CURRENT CHALLENGES OF THE NASHVILLE- HANDSHAKE DEAL, TBA Entertainment and Sports Law Forum, Nashville, Tennessee (May 2016)
Presenter – ENTERTAINMENT LITIGATION UPDATE, 28th Annual North American Sports, Entertainment and IP Conference, Akumal, Mexico (November 11, 2016)