The Principal Attorney at the Law Office of Barry Oliver Chase, P.A. 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 leading national collegiate Honor Society, and was listed as a Ranking Scholar during most of his eight semesters before graduating magna cum laude. At Harvard, Mr. Chase graduated in the top ten percent of his class, earning his JD degree cum laude.
Mr. Chase began his legal career with a large Washington, D.C. law firm in 1970, focussing 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 in the historic resignation from office of Vice President Spiro Agnew.
In 1976, Mr. Chase became Associate General Counsel of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 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 was asked to become Director of PBS's News and Public Affairs Programming, which started him on a career course that resulted in his becoming the top national PBS programming executive (Vice President for Programming) in the late 1980's. In 1991, he re-located to South Florida for personal and professional reasons, becoming the Senior Vice-President of National Production for South Florida's PBS affiliate.
After leaving the world of television and film production, Mr. Chase returned to the practice of entertainment law in Miami. He has represented Spanish-and English-language producers and television stars; Spanish-and English-language recording artists; composers; record companies; and filmmakers, artists, models, authors and screenwriters. He lectures regularly on the representation of media personalities and the "do's and don'ts" of music, television and film production. His on-line CLE (Continuing Legal Education) courses, available for Florida, New York, California and other CLE credit, are at www.celesq.com and include "Representing the Media Personality" and" Negotiating the Artist-Manager Relationship." Mr. Chase has been retained as an expert witness regarding product endorsements by Spanish-language media personalities and the obligations of broadcasters. He also acts as a consultant to TV and film producers.! Mr. Chase currently serves, or has served, on the Boards of Directors of various entertainment and arts-related organizations, including The South Florida Art Center, The Miami Design Preservation League (where he currently serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board), the Dade Cultural Alliance and The Arts & Business Council of Miami.
