Attorney Bios

Phil Kirkpatrick began his legal career at Stewart, Estes & Donnell out of law school almost 30 years ago.  He practices in the areas of entertainment and intellectual property litigation, unfair competition, products liability and fire loss litigation.  Since the late 1980's he has represented the Universal Music Group and numerous other clients in Copyright and Lanham Act matters, including many cases involving infringement claims as to sound recordings and musical compositions.  In the case of Curb Music Company v. MCA Records, Inc., he successfully represented MCA regarding rights to numerous recordings of the vocal duo "The Judds."  He has been local counsel for Universal in massive music litigation that included 110 rap copyright infringement cases in what has been known as the Bridgeport litigation in federal court in Nashville .   

Phil has represented the Estate of Tupac Shakur, artist Baby Bash, and, along with partner Horton Frank, has recently represented the Estate of legendary songwriter Harlan Howard.  He has also litigated claims for Universal involving the unauthorized use of numerous master recordings, including "Crazy" and "I Fall to Pieces" by Patsy Cline, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" by Kitty Wells, and album artwork of  Conway Twitty.  Recently, he was local counsel for the merchandising company to rap artist Chris Brown in federal litigation in Memphis , wherein a nationwide injunction was successfully obtained to prohibit the sale of unauthorized bootleg product containing the name and image of Chris Brown at or near all of the venues in Mr. Brown's nationwide tour.  He was lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the case of  United Brake Systems, Inc., v. American Environmental Protection, Inc., the first reported case in the state of Tennessee in which a money judgment was awarded to a plaintiff in state court under the Federal Lanham Act.

"Business Tennessee" magazine has included Phil in "The 101 Best Lawyers in  Tennessee ," wherein he was described as the "Hardest working man in the business, and as smart as they come."  (January 2005 edition "Business Tennessee" magazine).  He was selected as a Mid-South Super Lawyer for 2007 and 2008.  In the field of unfair competition, Phil has successfully handled numerous non-compete cases, including a case for an employee in which he not only obtained a declaration that the non-compete was unenforceable,  but he also obtained a money judgment and attorneys' fees against the employer for breach of contract and wrongful enforcement of an invalid covenant not to compete.

Phil has also handled numerous products liability cases for such manufacturers as Black & Decker, ( U.S. ) Inc.,  Hamilton Beach Proctor Silex, Inc., Coleman Company, Sunbeam Products, Inc.,  Continental Tire North America, Inc., and White Consolidated Industries, Inc.  He has defended numerous products, including power tools, small appliances, large appliances, gas grills, propane, natural gas meters, automobile tires and conveyor systems.

Phil obtained his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Tennessee in 1975 and '78.  He is a runner, and was an on air radio personality at radio stations in Knoxville, Tennessee, and a drummer before beginning the practice of law.  Among the numerous professional organizations to which Phil belongs are the Country Music Association, the Federal Communications Bar Association and the International Association of Defense Counsel.