Taylor Swift Hires New General Counsel for Management Company

The 12-time Grammy winner, whose current concert tour is expected to be the biggest-selling of all time, has picked Douglas Baldridge to be GC of 13 Management, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Taylor Swift has hired her outside counsel—a litigator who helped her prevail in a high-profile 2017 court fight with a radio personality she accused of groping—as general counsel of her Nashville, Tennessee-based management company, 13 Management

Douglas Baldridge, who has represented the pop sensation for nine years, will succeed Jay Schaudies, who is retiring after 11 years with the company, The Wall Street Journal reported exclusively Tuesday.

Baldridge has been a partner for 17 years at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Venable and is a former chair of its litigation group covering Washington and Virginia. The company has a substantial entertainment practice and has represented clients as varied as Barry Manilow and Snoop Dogg.

13 Management and Baldridge did not respond to requests for comment from Law.com on Tuesday.

Baldridge first represented Swift, 33, a 12-time Grammy winner, in 2014 after the U.S. clothier Blue Sphere filed a lawsuit alleging her use of “Lucky 13″ violated the trademark for the company’s Lucky 13 clothing line. 13 Management and Blue Sphere settled, with terms undisclosed, in 2015.

In 2017, Baldridge represented Swift in a lawsuit alleging that radio personality David Mueller groped her during a pH๏τo opportunity. Mueller was the first to sue, denying wrongdoing and saying the allegation had wrongly led to his firing.

A jury found Mueller had indeed groped her. But it awarded Swift just $1 in damages after Mueller informed the court that Swift only wanted to send a message, not to bankrupt him.

Baldridge has represented major U.S. companies in the pharmaceutical, technology and consumer-products industries, as well as in real estate, according to Venable’s website.

According to The Wall Street Journal, 13 Management will continue to tap Venable as outside counsel after Baldridge this fall departs the firm and moves in-house.

Swift is in the midst of a concert tour that’s expected to generate more than $1 billion in ticket sales, the first tour ever to reach that milestone.