Traci V. Bransford
Partner and Industry Team Lead – Parker Poe
Description of field of expertise
Entertainment, media, and sports clients turn to Traci Bransford for strategic counsel on the full range of their legal needs. She is the leader of Parker Poe’s Sports & Entertainment Industry Team and has over 30 years of experience.
Traci focuses her practice on transactional law with an emphasis on clients in music, television, film, literary publishing, and sports. She serves as outside general counsel in those industries and others, including retail, education, and health care. She guides her clients through many aspects of their businesses, including intellectual property management, contract negotiation, and brand strategy. Her clients benefit from her multi-jurisdictional experience from California to New York, and most recently Georgia and Minnesota, as well as her commitment to the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion. This background allows her to offer comprehensive solutions to key legal challenges.
Traci regularly speaks before national audiences about entertainment, media, sports, and celebrity philanthropy. She is a member of leading sports and entertainment law associations and serves on several nonprofit boards.
Earlier in her career, Traci served as general counsel to the world-renowned performing artist Prince and served as the chief executive for the legal affairs of his corporate entities, including Paisley Park Enterprises. That experience shaped much of her work ethic in serving high-profile entertainment clients and meeting their specific legal needs. It continues to inform her work today as she negotiates agreements for entertainers, athletes, and leading media companies.
Traci earned her Bachelor of Arts from Spelman College in Atlanta and her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law.
What advice would you offer to new attorneys interested in your field?
My advice to new attorneys that are interested in sports and entertainment law is to definitely try to attend as many sports and entertainment related law conferences and seek shadowing opportunities with attorneys in the field if possible. I also advise new attorneys to seek experience in corporate, employment, real estate, immigration, trademark and copyright and tax trust and estates law as many of those areas will be useful in representing your clients so that you are not so narrowly focused in your experiences. If you are working in private practice, do not hesitate to consult with a more senior sports and entertainment attorney who may have handled a deal that may be unfamiliar to you and co-counsel with them. Use the opportunity to expand your circle in the industry as well as a teaching moment to get firsthand training while still maintaining the client relationship.
Final thoughts…
Enjoy your practice as it has a lot of opportunities for high profile and exciting deals but never forget that the client is the sports or entertainment figure or media or sports company and you are a vital part of their team but you should remain behind the scenes for the most part unless you are as requested by the client or the circumstances require you to be in front of the camera. In short, it is never about you and you would be well served to always check your ego at the door and encourage those attorneys also on the deal, or opposing your client, to do the same.