Taylor Swift’s Plane Tracking, Trademarks Aided by Venable (1)

When Taylor Swift wanted a college student to stop tracking her plane, she turned to Venable, showing how deep her ties to the law firm have become over the past decade.

Venable also handled the US trademark application filed Jan. 27 by Swift’s TAS Rights Management LLC for TAYLOR-CON, a March convention in Dallas being held by Swift fans. Swift’s Nashville-based management company, 13 Management LLC, last year hired the former co-chair of Venable’s litigation practice in Washington, J. Douglas Baldridge, as its general counsel.

Swift’s former music manager, Scooter Braun, hired former Venable associate Andrew Sahn in 2022 to be general counsel for his Ithaca Holdings LLC. Braun’s purchase of Swift’s old record label in 2019 led her to re-record four of early studio albums. Braun has since sold the Swift catalog.

For Venable, a 750-lawyer firm that boasts on its website of empowering a client “to be the best version of yourself in any circumstance,” ties to the rich and famous are nothing new. The family office of hotel magnate J.W. “Bill” Marriott Jr. this year hired Venable tax and wealth planning partner Stephanie Loughlin to be its general counsel after she had been outside counsel to the business.

Venable’s ties to Swift go back at least to 2014. That year, Swift’s team tapped Baldridge, then a partner at the firm, to represent her in a trademark lawsuit with clothing company Blue Sphere. The matter settled on confidential terms.

Venable’s Katherine “Katie” Wright Morrone drafted a Dec. 22 letter threatening legal action against a Florida college student tracking Swift’s private jets. “You have engaged in stalking and harassing behavior, including consistently publishing real-time and precise information about our client’s location,” Wright Morrone told Jack Sweeney in the letter, which was obtained by Bloomberg News for a Feb. 6 story.

Wright Morrone is a civil litigator who made partner last month at Venable. Rebecca Liebowitz, co-chair of Venable’s trademark prosecution and brand management group, is the signatory to the trademark application filed last month by TAS Rights Management. TMZ first reported on the application.

Baldridge, Liebowitz, Wright Morrone, Venable, and a Swift spokeswoman didn’t respond to comment requests. Venable is a general practice firm with Baltimore and Washington roots that pulled in $723.6 million in gross revenue for 2022.

Venable is also known for its expertise in a few specialized practices, such as intellectual property, real estate, and wealth management, areas where expertise is often in demand by high-net-worth individuals.

Super Bowl

Swift’s profile has been supercharged lately with her less famous boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, poised to take the field in this Sunday’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Swift’s ability to make the big game in time—she has a concert the night before in Tokyo—and her whereabouts ahead of other Chiefs games this NFL season has been a subject of continuing public interest.

The success of Swift’s Eras concert tour helped push her net worth past $1 billion, according to an analysis last year by Bloomberg News. Swift has assembled an advisory team that includes her father, Scott Swift, a longtime financial adviser with Merrill Lynch.

Venable continues to defend Swift. The conclusion of the Blue Sphere matter in 2014 led Baldridge and the firm to get the call in 2017 for another lawsuit filed against Swift by David Mueller, a former disc jockey who claimed he was fired after the singer accused him of groping her at an event in Denver.

Mueller, who sought $3 million for wrongful termination, lost after being countersued by Swift. Baldridge led a Venable trial team that included Wright Morrone, then an associate at the firm, and partners Danielle Foley, Courtney Sullivan, and Brian Schwalb, who is now attorney general for the District of Columbia. Baldridge said in an interview after the case concluded that his client was a “principled person” with “an incredibly low ego for someone so famous.”

Swift was awarded a symbolic $1 in damages for her sexual harassment victory, a win subsequently cited by the US Supreme Court. Venable has continued fighting for its star client, helping her settle a long-running copyright battle in 2022 and shake off another copyright lawsuit the following year.

Sean Kammer, a law professor at the University of South Dakota who is teaching a legal writing class this semester through the lens of Swift’s various legal entanglements, said the singer makes for a superb teaching talking point.

“This week we discussed her copyright disputes, the rerecording of her masters, and the possibilities—and limits—of using trademark law or the right of publicity to protect her personal brand,” Kammer said. “Many of the students had no prior exposure to intellectual property, so it was fascinating to see them connect the law to stories they’ve been reading about, in some cases, for years.”

Kammer said next week he’ll cover issues related to privacy, online harassment, and stalking due to the jet-tracking story, and he also plans to discuss artificial intelligence and deepfakes following the recent doctored and non-consensual pornographic images of Swift that raise important questions about the ability of the law to combat and prevent acts of sexual violence.

“The issues we have been exploring are indeed fascinating, and occasionally terrifying,” Kammer said.