Michelle Wahl

Michelle Wahl is a Partner at Swanson, Martin & Bell and is Co-Chair of her firm’s Entertainment and Media Practice Group. She has a Master of Laws in intellectual property and focuses her entertainment/intellectual property practice on overseeing multiple client portfolios and providing comprehensive representation in negotiating music-related contracts such as band member agreements, artist management agreements, work-for-hire agreements, performance agreements, sound engineer and producer agreements, recording and personal services agreements, publishing agreements, and synchronization and master use licensing agreements.

She has guest lectured at UIC Law, DePaul University College of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law and Azusa Pacific University (CA), and served as an author and editor of the American Bar Association’s Entertainment & Sports Lawyers Journal, from 2015 until mid-2023. She is the former President of the Associate Board to Lawyers for the Creative Arts, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to eligible clients in the arts and entertainment communities, and since 2018, she has proudly served as Events Chair for the Chicago Chapter of Women in Music, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to fostering equality in the music industry through the support and advancement of women. Michelle has been a Professional Member of The Recording Academy since 2017 and has been a Mentor for the Academy’s Grammy U mentorship program since 2021.