Mr. Sloan is a corporate and intellectual property lawyer who represents entrepreneurs, start-ups and other emerging businesses, handling complex software and other IT transactions for both small and large companies alike. He helps many early-stage, high-growth businesses with business planning and formation, venture capital funding, drafting and negotiating vendor and customer agreements, strategic contract negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property protection and other general business law and intellectual property law issues. He often serves as outside general counsel for these types of companies.

Mr. Sloan regularly represents both technology and brick-and-mortar clients in connection with software, IT and other vendor contract negotiations, including software and health care IT transactions valued as high as $100 million. He regularly counsels hospitals and other health care providers on IT and intellectual property issues. Mr. Sloan takes pride in providing his clients with practical, cost-effective advice tailored for each client's unique business objectives. He is actively involved in the technology and entrepreneur communities, and he is a frequent author, speaker, board member and leader in that community.

Mr. Sloan routinely advises clients on such intellectual property law issues as trademark selection and protection, copyright protection, nondisclosure agreements, trade secret protection and domain name disputes. He is a recognized authority on intellectual property licensing, and is the author of the licensing chapter of both editions of the American Bar Association's book Intellectual Property Deskbook for the Business Lawyer. He has handled a variety of website-related disputes, including privacy policies, terms of use, click-wrap, browsewrap, and similar online agreements, the Digital Milennium Copyright Act and domain name disputes under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. In the entertainment law sector, Mr. Sloan regularly represents book publishers in connection with a variety of domestic and foreign publishing and licensing matters.

He is actively involved in the Nashville Technology Council, serving on the board of directors and Executive Committee as well as acting as their Chairman Elect and General Counsel. Mr. Sloan was a member of the Nashville Chamber's Partnership 2010 Entrepreneurship Task Force and serves on the advisory board for the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Mr. Sloan is a long-standing member of the Executive Committee of the Tennessee Bar Association's Intellectual Property Law Committee.
Mr. Sloan is a frequent speaker and contributor to CLE seminars, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Nashville Technology Council events and other similar events.

Professional Honors & Activities
• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in Intellectual Property Law (2005 – 2006, 2009 – 2010), Information Technology Law (2007 – 2012) and Copyright Law (2012)
• Chairman of the Board, Member of Board of Directors and Executive Committee – Nashville Technology Council
• Board of Directors – Life Science Tennessee
• Advisory Board – Nashville Entrepreneur Center
• Listed – Nashville Post "In Charge" list - Technology (2011)
• Named – "Power Leaders in Technology for 2011" by the Nashville Business Journal (August 2011)
• Executive Committee and Intellectual Property Committee – Tennessee Bar Association
• Founding Board of Directors – Nashville Preparatory Charter School
• Member – Nashville, Tennessee and American Bar Associations
• Member – Partnership 2010 Entrepreneurship Task Force
• Member – American Health Lawyers Association
• Mentor – JumpStart Foundry
Publications & Recent Speaking Engagements
• Speaker – "Law of Technology: What You Need to Know," Tennessee Bar Association, September 22, 2011
• Panelist – "Venture Capital 101," Tennessee Governor's Conference, September 22, 2011
• Judge – TechVenture Challenge, Nashville, Tennessee, April 5, 2011
• Judge – Belmont Business Plan Competition, Nashville, Tennessee, April 1, 2011
• Moderator – "Negotiating a Term Sheet," Nashville Technology Council's Entrepreneurial Series, Nashville, Tennessee, February 15, 2011
• Speaker – Owen Entrepreneurship Center Breakfast, Nashville, Tennessee, September 24, 2010
• Panel member – "Panel Discussion: IT License Agreements," 2010 Mississippi Software Institute, Jackson, Mississippi, February 26, 2010
• Speaker – "Top 10 Issues for Software Companies," 2010 Mississippi Software Institute, Jackson, Mississippi, February 16, 2010
• Speaker – "Capital Formation," Nashville Technology Council's Entrepreneurial Series, Nashville, Tennessee, December 3, 2009
• Speaker – "Doing Business in China," North Alabama International Trade Association, Huntsville, Alabama, September 1, 2009
• Speaker – "IP for Small Businesses," Green Hills Rotary Club, Nashville, Tennessee, August 7, 2009
• Panel Member – "China—Still the Land of Opportunities for U.S. Businesses," Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce's China Business Group, Nashville, Tennessee, January 13, 2009
• Speaker – "Service Level Agreements: Tricks and Traps for the Unwary," Tennessee Bar Association's "The Law of Technology: What You Need to Know" seminar, Nashville, Tennessee, September 26, 2008
Admissions
• Tennessee
Education
• Vanderbilt University Law School, J.D., 1999
• University of Virginia, B.A., 1996
Interests
Chris is actively involved in many conservation organizations locally, nationally and internationally. He is one of the more widely recognized regional experts on bird identification and distribution, and he co-authors a quarterly column on birds of Tennessee & Kentucky for North American Birds. Several of his papers on birds have been accepted and published in scientific journals. Chris is also an avid nature photographer and has sold photos to publications in North American and Europe. Some of his pictures can be found at www.chrissloanphotography.com.