The Principal Attorney at ChaseLawyersTM entertainment attorneys is Barry Oliver Chase, Esq. Mr. Chase is an honors graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School. While at Yale, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the most prominent national collegiate Honor Society, and was listed as a Ranking Scholar during the majority of his eight semesters before graduating magna cum laude. At Harvard, Mr. Chase graduated with honors, earning his JD degree cum laude.
Mr. Chase began his legal career with a large Washington, D.C. law firm in 1970, focusing his practice on Communications and First Amendment law. During the early 1970s, Mr. Chase represented such media giants as CBS, the Times-Mirror Company, Capital Cities Communications and Time, Inc., regarding Federal Communications Commission (FCC) matters. In connection with his First Amendment work, Mr. Chase represented journalists who came under fire during the famous Watergate litigation before Judge John Sirica. He also represented journalists in the course of the criminal proceedings leading to the historic resignation from office of Vice President Spiro Agnew.
In 1976, Mr. Chase became Associate General Counsel of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Television Network. In that capacity, he dealt with national and international television program and music rights, on-air legal issues relating to the Fairness Doctrine, Equal Time and defamation, and program funding. After two years in the PBS Counsel’s Office, he became Director of PBS’s News and Public Affairs Programming and later became the top national PBS programming executive (Vice President for Programming). During this period, he was PBS’s point-man in charge of such projects as EYES ON THE PRIZE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, FRONTLINE, THE NEWSHOUR, Carl Sagan’s COSMOS series, NOVA, and the CIVIL WAR series. In 1991, he re-located to South Florida, becoming the Senior Vice-President of National Production for South Florida’s PBS affiliate.
After his high-level hands-on experience in the world of television and film production, Mr. Chase returned to the practice of entertainment law in Miami. He represents Spanish- and English-language musical artists; television stars; composers; record companies; filmmakers; actors; models; authors; screenwriters; live performers; visual artists; and Internet and New Media entrepreneurs. He lectures regularly on the representation of media personalities and the legal “do’s and don’ts” of music, television and film production.
