#CulturedPeachy #LegalPeachy Channah Norman, Former Museum General Counsel, to Lead Shook's Expanded Art Law Practice

Senior Counsel Channah Norman is an experienced business and legal advisor on museums, cultural property and the art market, combining eight years as museum general counsel with seven years as an appellate litigator.

Shook, Hardy & Bacon is pleased to announce Senior Counsel Channah Norman as co-chair of the firm's growing Art Law Practice. Norman joins Shook after serving as Chief Counsel for the U.S. Army Center of Military History, where she provided strategic advice and legal counsel for the National Museum of the U.S. Army and 46 subsidiary Army museums, as well as the Army Artifact Collection. She will advise clients nationally from Shook's Washington, D.C. and New York locations.

Shook's Art Law Practice brings together attorneys coast-to-coast from the firm's business litigation, class action and appellate, corporate services, privacy and data security, and intellectual property practices, to assist clients navigating the art and cultural property sector. Norman will lead the new group alongside Executive Committee Member Alicia Donahue and Class Action & Appellate Litigation Co-Chair Tristan Duncan.

"Shook already has a long history of working with key stakeholders in the art market," said Norman. "I'm pleased to expand the services the firm can offer clients who have questions around the sale and transfer of art, copyright disputes, and the repatriation of cultural works."

The Art Law Practice provides legal counsel to museums, dealers, collectors, financial institutions and insurers—among others—on issues related to repatriation and restitution, copyright status, infringement claims, and disputes arising from authenticity concerns, sales agreements and contracts, and insurance coverage. The group will also advise clients on the use of artificial intelligence to generate new works or designs.

"We are delighted to welcome Channah to the firm. Her former experience as museum chief counsel will prove invaluable for our clients facing complex business and insurance issues related to art and cultural property," said Duncan.

During her time in museum administration, Norman advised national institutions on sensitive repatriation and restitution matters, such as Nazi propaganda art, as well as implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). She also led a team in drafting a Collections Management Plan setting out the policies and procedures for all aspects of museum operations. Before her tenure at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Norman served as an appellate litigator with the Department of Justice.

Norman holds Bachelor's Degrees in Art History and French from Cornell University, a Master's Degree in Art Business from Sotheby's Institute of Art in London, and an LL.M. in Art & Cultural Property from Georgetown University Law Center. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico. Norman also studied at the Sorbonne and the Geneva Institute in Transnational Law.

Norman currently serves as a faculty member of the Museum Studies Master's Degree Program at George Washington University. She also completed a three-year term on the Steering Committee for the Legal Issues in Museum Administration Conference, and formerly chaired the Art & Cultural Heritage Law Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of International Law.

Norman is a regular presenter at art law conferences across the country, and she has performed a detail to INTERPOL's Cultural Property Crimes Program. Throughout her studies, she has held multiple arts-related internships, including work at the Mimi Ferzt Gallery in New York City, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Bonhams London, the Robert Holden Ltd. art consultancy in London, and the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C.

About Shook, Hardy & Bacon

Founded in 1889, Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P. has 19 offices in the United States and London, with attorneys and professional staff serving clients in the health, science and technology sectors in areas ranging from product liability defense and business litigation to intellectual property prosecution and litigation, environmental and toxic tort, privacy and data security and regulatory counseling.