Adams & Reese Welcomes Prominent Entertainment IP Litigator

One of the nation's premier entertainment and copyright litigators, Richard Busch, joins Adams & Reese as Counsel and member of the firm's Global Intellectual Property Practice. With decades of trial and appellate experience, Busch focuses his entertainment law practice on copyright, intellectual property, trademark, and commercial litigation.

Joining Busch in the Nashville office are attorneys Drew Davis and David Niemierzycki, who will serve on the Global Intellectual Property team. Davis and Niemierzycki have worked with Busch on a number of high-profile cases. Together, the three will significantly strengthen the firm's intellectual property and entertainment law practice, positioning it as a powerful force in the entertainment and IP industries.

“Richard is one of the most accomplished IP litigators in the entertainment industry, and we are thrilled to welcome him to the firm,” said Gif Thornton, Managing Partner at Adams & Reese. “His knowledge and experience in serving high-profile clients and winning landmark decisions over two decades and continuing to today speaks for itself. Richard’s addition, along with Drew Davis and David Niemierzycki, immediately elevates our intellectual property and entertainment law capabilities and reflects our commitment to building a world-class IP practice.”

Busch has secured multiple appellate victories and multimillion-dollar jury awards for major recording artists, music publishers, songwriters, and entertainment personalities. His high-profile clients have included Eminem's producers and music publishers, the heirs of Marvin Gaye, Bridgeport Music, the Songwriters Guild of America, Bob Gaudio of the Four Seasons and Jersey Boys, Thomas Dolby, James Taylor, Al Bell, and Dwight Yoakam, among others. Most recently, he secured a Sixth Circuit victory representing the estate of the late Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell in a copyright ownership dispute against George Clinton and is currently representing Salt-N-Pepa in its ongoing appeal against Universal Music Group regarding termination rights to its master recordings. His other notable trial and appellate successes include the landmark Ninth Circuit decision in F.B.T. Productions, LLC v. Aftermath Records, which redefined how digital music sales are treated under recording agreements; a jury verdict awarding compensatory and punitive damages for willful copyright infringement against Bad Boy Records; the world famous “Blurred Lines” case, in which he obtained a $7.4 million jury verdict for the heirs of Marvin Gaye against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke; a $5.8 million arbitration award for fitness personality Jillian Michaels against Lionsgate for unauthorized distribution of her content on YouTube; and a jury trial victory, affirmed on appeal, for the former owner of the iconic Stax Records label, Al Bell, in his fight to reclaim ownership of the rights to “Whoomp! (There it is)”. He also secured the Sixth Circuit's precedent-setting ruling in Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films, establishing that there is no de minimis defense to the sampling of a sound recording, as well as yet another trial victory for Bridgeport, affirmed on appeal, which found that even a few ordinary words, if used in a new song the same way as in the original, constitutes copyright infringement, a decision Billboard Magazine identified as one of the five most important judicial decisions of 2009.

A leading authority on copyright and entertainment law, Busch is frequently cited in The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and CNN. His accolades in entertainment law is recognized regularly and include Billboard's "Top Music Lawyers", The Hollywood Reporter's "Top 100 Entertainment Power Lawyers", National Law Journal "Trailblazer", Variety's "Power 50" entertainment lawyers, Billboard's "Power 100" most influential people in music, and Billboard's "Music's Most Powerful Attorneys" where he was one of only four litigators named.

“I’m excited to join Adams & Reese and to continue advocating for the creative rights of my clients,” said Richard Busch. “Nashville is one of the world’s great music cities, and joining a firm with a collaborative culture and national reach provides the ideal platform for high-stakes IP and entertainment law. I look forward to building on that momentum alongside Drew and David and delivering exceptional results for our clients.”

Busch earned his J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, where he served on the Law Review and Moot Court Board, and his B.A. from Augustana College. He clerked for the Honorable John V. Parker, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. He is admitted to practice in Tennessee, New York, and California, and before the U.S. Supreme Court, multiple U.S. Courts of Appeals, and federal district courts nationwide.