Artists and arts organizations routinely face complex legal and financial challenges—contract questions and disputes, intellectual property issues, nonprofit and business formation, taxes, debt management, financial planning and more—but often lack the resources necessary to address them. Several nonprofits, associations, and organizations across Tennessee and beyond offer legal guidance, financial counseling, educational tools, and accessible services to help fill this gap. Below is a list of twenty legal and financial resources for Nashville-area artists and arts organizations, so you can access the services and tools you need to confidently make, protect, and share your creative work.
The resources listed below are provided to website visitors for information-only purposes and the selection of these resources should not be construed as an endorsement or legal advice.
Volunteer Lawyers & Professionals for the Arts (VLPA): The Arts & Business Council’s VLPA program provides pro bono legal and business support to income-qualified artists, creative entrepreneurs, and nonprofit arts organizations across Tennessee on arts-related legal matters. VLPA provides legal support through free quarterly clinics and full case referrals. VLPA volunteers provide advice and support on contract drafting and review, nonprofit formation, intellectual property questions, and more.
Bradley Black-Owned Small Business and Nonprofit Legal Clinic: The Arts & Business Council’s Volunteer Lawyers & Professionals for the Arts program partners with Bradley to offer free, virtual monthly legal clinics providing business-oriented legal services, including business formation, nonprofit formation, corporate governance, contract review, and guidance on local and state regulations. Attorneys also assist with intellectual property issues like trademark and copyright. Volunteer attorneys serve majority Black-owned and Black-led small businesses and nonprofits with ten or fewer employees, including both new and established organizations.
Nashville Bar Association Lawyer Referral & Information Service (LRIS): Not every legal issue qualifies for pro bono support, and many nonprofit programs (including VLPA) are unable to take on litigation matters. As a result, many people simply need help finding the right attorney. The Nashville Bar Association provides a trusted starting point for connecting with qualified legal professionals, making legal services more accessible and less overwhelming to navigate.
TN Free Legal Answers: Many legal problems start with one simple question, but access to even basic legal advice can be difficult. TN Free Legal Answers provides free online legal guidance for qualifying low-income Tennesseans by connecting them with licensed Tennessee attorneys who can answer civil legal questions related to housing, family law, employment, consumer rights, benefits, and more. By offering accessible legal support through an online portal, the program helps remove barriers for people who may not be able to afford private counsel or attend an in-person clinic.
Tennessee Bar Association: Many people do not need a specific legal service first—they need help knowing where to start. The Tennessee Bar Association provides trusted legal resources, attorney directories, and guidance that help individuals, small businesses, nonprofits, and organizations navigate their options. By connecting people to local lawyer referral services, legal aid programs, and qualified attorneys across Tennessee, TBA helps make legal support more accessible and less overwhelming to navigate.
Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands (LAS): Artists in Nashville often face legal challenges unrelated to their creative practice that can materially affect their lives and livelihoods. Legal Aid Society provides free access to legal support, ensuring more Tennesseans can protect their rights and navigate critical civil legal challenges.
Nashville Conflict Resolution Center (NCRC): Not every legal issue needs a courtroom battle. The Nashville Conflict Resolution Center helps individuals, families, landlords, tenants, and community members resolve disputes through mediation and restorative conflict resolution services, including family mediation, civil mediation, and victim-offender mediation. By offering a faster, more affordable alternative to litigation, NCRC helps people reach practical agreements while reducing the time, cost, and stress of going to court.
Vanderbilt Law School Clinics & Experiential Learning Program: For many artists and small creative businesses, intellectual property protection and contract support can feel expensive and difficult to access. Vanderbilt Law School’s clinical programs provide free or low-cost legal services through student-led clinics supervised by faculty attorneys, including the Intellectual Property & the Arts Clinic, which offers support with copyright, trademark, contracts, licensing, entertainment law, and nonprofit formation. This clinic model helps bridge the gap by providing practical legal assistance while also training the next generation of attorneys working in arts, entertainment, and public interest law.
University of Tennessee Winston College of Law Legal Clinic: For artists, makers, and creative entrepreneurs, legal needs often extend beyond copyright into contracts, business formation, nonprofit structure, and compliance. UT’s Legal Clinic provides student-led legal services supervised by faculty attorneys, offering support in areas like business law, trademark law, contracts, nonprofit governance, mediation, and transactional services for entrepreneurs and underrepresented small businesses. This clinic model helps make legal services more accessible while strengthening the pipeline of future attorneys committed to public-interest and small business legal work.
Copyright Claims Board (CCB): For artists and creatives, copyright is often the foundation of their livelihood. The Copyright Claims Board, part of the U.S. Copyright Office, provides a lower-cost, streamlined alternative to federal court for resolving certain copyright disputes, including infringement claims, declarations of noninfringement, and DMCA-related disputes. With fully online case management and claims up to $30,000, the CCB gives creators and small businesses a more practical way to protect their work and address unauthorized use.
Tennessee PATENTS (now served through Georgia PATENTS by Georgia Lawyers for the Arts): For artists, designers, makers, and creative entrepreneurs, intellectual property is often one of their most valuable assets. Tennessee PATENTS, now served through Georgia PATENTS by Georgia Lawyers for the Arts, helps financially under-resourced inventors, nonprofits, and small businesses connect with volunteer patent attorneys and agents for support with patent applications and intellectual property protection. By reducing the financial barrier to working with qualified patent professionals, the program helps make patent protection more accessible for original inventions, product designs, and innovations.
Copyright.gov: Copyright is one of the most important protections for artists, writers, musicians, and creators because it helps protect original work the moment it is fixed in a tangible form—whether that is a song, painting, book, photograph, film, or other creative work. The official website of the U.S. Copyright Office provides registration tools, copyright education, public records and guidance on ownership, infringement, and licensing. By helping creators understand their rights and formally register their work when needed, the platform makes it easier to protect creative income and enforce ownership when disputes arise.
Artists Rights Society (ARS): For visual artists, copyright protection does not stop at creation—it extends to how artwork is reproduced, published, exhibited, and licensed. Artists Rights Society helps visual artists, photographers, illustrators, sculptors, and artist estates manage intellectual property rights, license artwork for commercial and educational use, and protect against unauthorized reproductions. By working with museums, publishers, brands, and media producers, ARS helps ensure artists retain control over how their work is used and are properly credited and compensated.
Freelancers Union: Many artists and creatives work as freelancers long before they think of themselves as business owners. Freelancers Union provides advocacy, education, benefits, and business resources that help freelancers navigate contracts, late payments, healthcare, insurance, retirement planning, and other practical challenges of self-employment. By offering practical protections and pushing for stronger legal safeguards like Freelance Isn’t Free laws, the organization helps make freelance work more sustainable and helps independent workers protect both their income and their rights.
SCORE: Many artists and creatives are running businesses whether they realize it or not. SCORE provides free, confidential business mentoring and low-cost educational workshops that help entrepreneurs, freelancers, small business owners, and nonprofit founders navigate business planning, marketing, funding, operations, and financial strategy. Through its nationwide network of volunteer mentors, SCORE helps bridge the gap between creative practice and long-term business sustainability.
Nashville Financial Empowerment Center: Financial stability is often the foundation that allows creative work and small business to grow sustainably. A partnership of the Mayor’s Office and United Way of Greater Nashville, the Nashville Financial Empowerment Center helps people move from a state of instability to a state of empowerment with new savings habits, higher credit scores and lower debt burdens. Since opening its doors in 2013, the Nashville FEC has helped 11,890 clients reduce their debt by $39+ million and increase their savings by $7.4+ million.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA): Taxes can be a major financial stress point for artists, freelancers, and small business owners—especially when income is inconsistent or self-managed. VITA, offered through United Way of Greater Nashville, provides free tax preparation for qualifying households earning below the annual income threshold, helping individuals and families file accurately without the cost of paid tax services. By reducing filing barriers and helping people keep more of what they earn, VITA supports greater financial stability and long-term economic health.
Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS): Tax problems can quickly become overwhelming—especially when refunds are delayed, notices go unanswered, or IRS issues create financial hardship. The TAS is an independent organization within the IRS that helps individuals, small businesses, and nonprofits resolve tax problems they have been unable to fix through normal IRS channels. TAS protects taxpayer rights, helps address issues like refund delays, identity theft, payment dispute, and IRS notices. Most importantly, their assistance is free, helping taxpayers navigate complex IRS issues without added financial burden.
LawHelp.org: Sometimes the biggest barrier is simply knowing where to start. LawHelp.org helps individuals and families find free legal aid, self-help tools, court forms, and legal information by connecting users to nonprofit legal aid organizations and statewide legal help resources across the country. By making legal information easier to understand and offering access to free or low-cost support, the platform helps people move from confusion to action before small problems become larger legal crises.
Help4TN: Legal problems often start with confusion, not crisis. Help4TN helps Tennesseans find free legal help, self-help forms, educational resources, and social service support for civil legal issues like housing, family law, debt, benefits, and landlord-tenant disputes. By offering clear guidance, legal tools, and direct access to resources like 844-HELP4TN helpline and TN Free Legal Answers, the platform helps people take action before small problems become major barriers.