Lauren Spahn, a dual graduate of the Music Business and Entertainment Industries program (now called the Music Industry program) at the Frost School of Music and the School of Law at the University of Miami, has been named one of the Top 100 Music Lawyers in the United States by Billboard Magazine for the second year in a row.
This year she shares that honor with nine other Miami Law alumni. But Spahn, who graduated in 2013, says the knowledge of the music industry she gained at the Frost School’s Music Industry program (MIND) was essential to what has been a highly successful legal career. Billboard has consistently named MIND one of the top music industry programs in the country.
“Frost gave me the practical hands-on knowledge I needed to thrive in my career,” Spahn says. “Without the skill set I was given at Frost I wouldn’t have been able to jump into my job the way I that I did and to thrive the way that I have.”
Spahn, who grew up in Palm City, Florida, trained as a classical pianist and vocalist and loved music. But she also wanted to be an attorney. The University of Miami’s J.D./Master of Music in Music Business and Entertainment Industries, the first program of its kind, offered a way to combine those passions.
Spahn, who lives and works in Nashville, is an attorney and shareholder in the Entertainment Industry division of Buchalter, one of the top 200 law firms in the United States. She has worked with clients in almost every area of the music business, including recording artists, songwriters, publishers, talent buyers, producers, managers, executives, record labels, and technology companies. And she has done so across many different legal areas, handling complex transactional and pre-litigation matters related to copyright, trademark and intellectual property.
Her MIND classes in areas such as live performance, one of Spahn’s specialties, and music publishing were essential to handling legal matters in an extremely complex business.
“Entertainment law is not a specific kind of law, it’s a lot of different types of law,” Spahn says. “What you have to understand is the subject matter. You have to know how the business side works, how distribution works, how royalties are calculated.”
In addition to her professional work, Spahn is the legal counsel for the Nashville chapter of the Women in Music Business Association, and is regularly featured in Music Row magazine’s InCharge edition. She says she is thrilled to be honored by Billboard. “It’s an honor to be recognized as a leader in this industry,” she says.
