Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

Organization Description

MdVLA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Maryland artists’ legal rights. Through the help of our professionally trained network of lawyers, we proudly provide pro bono legal referrals and services to artists in the state of Maryland. We hold lectures and seminars as well as Art Law Clinics for consultations, and we generate educational materials to keep you in the know.

Program Details

Legal Services

Program Website: Lawyer Request

Program Description:

Our mission is to provide high-quality legal services to low-income artists and non-profit arts organizations. Our lawyers take on cases for artists like they would any other client, subject to all of the ethical and other requirements of any attorney-client relationship. We want to help you overcome legal barriers that limit your ability to create, distribute or profit from your creativity. We help artists of all stripes—painters, sculptors, musicians, filmmakers, and writers—with a range of arts-related issues, like securing a federal copyright registration, choosing a legal entity type and forming that entity, and negotiating a contract.

Clients must meet certain income requirements to qualify for representation, and there is a small administrative fee.


Online intake form URL: Apply for a Lawyer
Services
Is this legal advice?

This site offers legal information, not legal advice.  We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information and to clearly explain your options.  However we do not provide legal advice - the application of the law to your individual circumstances. For legal advice, you should consult an attorney.  The Maryland Thurgood Marshall State Law Library, a court-related agency of the Maryland Judiciary, sponsors this site.  In the absence of file-specific attribution or copyright, the Maryland Thurgood Marshall State Law Library may hold the copyright to parts of this website. You are free to copy the information for your own use or for other non-commercial purposes with the following language “Source: Maryland's People’s Law Library – www.peoples-law.org. © Maryland Thurgood Marshall State Law Library, 2024.”