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PAMELA G. BROWNE, ASSOCIATE DEAN, MIKE CURB
SCHOOL OF
ENTERTAINMENT AND MUSIC BUSINESS, BELMONT
UNIVERSITY
Growing up in Nashville, Pamela Browne felt that
her interest in pop music pre-
cluded entry into the city's country-heavy music
business. She graduated from
Syracuse University and Vanderbilt University
School of Law in the late 1980s. She
began her legal career with First American
Bank's (now AmSouth Bank) Music Row
branch, handling music industry accounts. While
there, she met an attorney who rep-
resented several top country acts, who advised
her that her best chance to get
involved with the music business was not
through a bank, but by going into private
legal practice. She went to work for his firm,
and when he sold his practice 18 months
later, she opened her own firm to service the
many pop and R&B artists who also
record in Nashville. "At the time, Nashville
had started doing pop projects. Whitney
Houston, Aretha Franklin, Vanessa Williams, and
others were all coming to Nashville
to record. I started representing many of
them." When several of her clients were
without management, she took on those duties as
well and found that she enjoyed
that aspect even more. She managed and guided
the career of multiplatinum-selling
artist Tag Team.
While attending the Leadership Music industry
retreat, Browne met an entertain-
ment attorney who also taught in the music
business program at Belmont University.
Offered the opportunity to teach classes in
copyright law, and having previously
taught banking classes at a local technical
school, Browne felt sure she would enjoy
the challenge. In 1994, she joined the faculty
of the Mike Curb Music Business
Program in 1994 as assistant professor of
copyright law and was promoted to associ-
ate professor in 1999. She discovered that she
loved working with students. Several
years later, Browne found herself on the search
committee for a new associate dean.
After months of not finding a suitable
candidate, she accepted the position on an
interim basis. Free to try new programs, she
instituted a number of innovations,
including a sister campus in Los Angeles that
offers classes and internships geared to
the pop, rock, and R&B markets.
Increasingly, it became apparent that Browne herself
was the best candidate for the associate dean
position, which she finally accepted in
1999. In addition to her duties as associate
dean, Browne continues to teach intellec-
tual property law, artist management, legal
issues of music industry, and business law.
www.belmont.edu/mb/
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