Norman Gillis is the principal of Norman Gillis & Associates, Inc., the first Better Business Bureau accredited Entertainment Law Firm in Nashville with an A+ rating. Norman's practice includes the areas of entertainment law, entertainment contracts, music law, intellectual property, copyright, trademark, and business and commercial contracts. He received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Mississippi. He has led continuing legal education seminars for the National Business Institute, and has presented on extraordinary remedies in trademark protection for the Nashville Bar Association. Norman is a regular co-speaker for the televised Pensacola, FL program, Music Business and Taxes, and is a member of the Tennessee, Mississippi and Nashville Bar Associations. Norman is on the Professional Advisory Board for AFTRA, has served on the Faculty Advisory Committee for the International Academy of Design and Technology, and is on the legal team for the Artists Music Guild.
For the past 20 years of his 30-year legal career, Norman has practiced on Music Row in Nashville. His clients have included Brooks & Dunn, David Corlew Music Group, Blue Hat Records/Charlie Daniels Band, producer Barry Beckett, Bigg & Rich/Muzik Mafia, Tim McGraw, Creative Artists Agency, Bill Monroe Estate, Leo Lyons (Ten Years After), The Righteous Brothers, Duane Eddy, Bela Fleck and Kathy Mattea, and many more. Norman handled all licensing and negotiations for the Concord Records release, Jamie Oldaker's Mad Dogs & Okies with artists including Eric Clapton, Ray Benson, J.J. Cale, Willie Nelson, Peter Frampton, Vince Gill, Taj Mahal, and Willis Alan Ramsay.
Norman's current representative clients include Ronnie Dunn, Kix Brooks, Bonnie Bramlett, Bekka Bramlett, Sure Fire Music, Simon & Schuster author R. Gary Patterson, producer Chuck Howard, Pam Tillis, Savannah Music Group, Blue Steel Records, OmniSound Studios, Tuniverse Entertainment, Rachel Holder, Exile, Bomshel, Richie McDonald, Pablo Cruise, Gary Paxton, Daniel Peck, Big Country Records, Fox Music, and Platinum Pen Music Publishing.
In addition to his passion for law, church and community activities are equally important to Norman. He has assisted with mission trips to Honduras and the Lacota Sioux Reservation in South Dakota through the Episcopal Church, and worked on a Rotary International project for mentally and physically challenged children in Jamaica. He is past Rotary club president, past Sr. Warden of his church, and is in the St. David's Episcopal Choir, in addition to being a Licensed Eucharistic Minister for the Dioceses of Tennessee and Mississippi.
Admitted:
-Tennessee
-Mississippi and U.S. District Court, Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi
-U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
Education:
-University of Mississippi, J.D.
-University of Mississippi, B.A.
Recognitions:
-BV Distinguished Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell for his professionalism and ethics.