Adams and Reese Counsel Phil Kirkpatrick has been elected to a two-year term as the President of the Nashville Entertainment and IP Lawyers American Inn of Court.
The American Inns of Court, which consists of 400 chartered chapters and groups in 48 states, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. There are nearly 30,000 active members encompassing a wide cross-section of the legal community, including federal and state judges, lawyers, law professors, and law students.
Kirkpatrick is a leading member of the Adams and Reese Global Intellectual Property and Litigation practice groups. A federal court litigator for over 40 years, Kirkpatrick focuses on cases related to entertainment, intellectual property/technology, products liability, and commercial matters. He is also a Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 31-listed general civil mediator.
Throughout his career, Kirkpatrick has represented artists, songwriters, producers, musicians, managers, and major music groups including labels, publishers and merchandisers. He also handles copyright termination and recapture litigation, which is a fast growing and very significant practice area in a songwriter town like Nashville.
Additionally, Kirkpatrick counsels clients on a broad range of commercial disputes, including restrictive covenants and numerous other contractual matters, as well as soft intellectual property (copyright and trademark) and trade secret cases. In his products liability work, he represents manufacturers, sellers and others dealing with issues stemming from fires, explosions and other accidents. In addition, Kirkpatrick defends leading small appliance manufacturers, power tool manufacturers, and numerous other product manufacturers.
Kirkpatrick handles both litigation involving intellectual properties in the music and entertainment industries, as well as the science-driven litigation on the products liability side involving engineering, design, materials and failure analysis.
In the community, Kirkpatrick serves as an active voting member of the Country Music Association, and was a former Board of Trustees member and General Counsel to Harding Academy, a K-8 Independent School in Nashville. He has also served on the board of the Tennessee Art League in Nashville.
Kirkpatrick was injured as a spectator at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The next year, he returned to Boston and ran and finished the 2014 Boston Marathon. Kirkpatrick’s story of recovery and triumph was featured in The Funrunner magazine.