Amelia Brankov profile photo

Amelia K. Brankov focuses her practice on art, culture, and litigation.

As a well-rounded litigator, Ms. Brankov helps businesses and individuals in the creative sector resolve a wide range of dispute-resolution matters. Her practice includes advising on complex disputes involving breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, copyright infringement, and the right of publicity. She has appeared in federal and state trial and appellate courts around the country and has represented clients in mediations and arbitrations nationwide.

In her art law practice, Ms. Brankov advises galleries, collectors, artist studios, artist estates and foundations, curators, art advisors, appraisers, conservators, publishers, and startups. She assists clients in all legal aspects of transactions involving artwork including purchase agreements, consignment agreements, commission agreements, and loan agreements. She also represents clients in disputes concerning the rights to artwork and artists' legacies, as well as business disputes among various players in the art world. She has litigated cases involving artworks by numerous well-known American artists including John Chamberlain, Donald Judd, Norman Rockwell, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly, and many others. In her transactional practice, she has advised on the purchase, consignment, and sale of art and cultural property spanning from treasures of the ancient empires to works created by some of the most sought-after artists working today.

Ms. Brankov has been quoted in publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and writes and lectures frequently on art law and intellectual property law issues. She is the Chair of the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association and the Chair of Trusts & Estates magazine’s Art, Antiques & Auctions editorial advisory committee. She is the immediate past Co-Chair of the Art Law Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association. She contributed the New York chapter of Getting the Deal Through: Art Law 2018, 2019, and 2020 (Law Business Research). She has been named a Super Lawyer in New York for business litigation and intellectual property every year since 2013, and is included on Super Lawyer’s Top 100 (2023) and Top 50: Women New York Metro-Area (2022-23) lists. She is admitted to practice in New York and Texas.

Ms. Brankov is an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Steinhardt School. She teaches a course in art law to students pursuing their Master’s degrees in Arts Administration.

Prior to founding her own firm in 2021, Ms. Brankov practiced law at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC and started her career as a litigation and arbitration associate at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

Client and Peer Testimonials

“I can’t recommend her enough, she is fantastic. She really stands out.” Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2023.

She interacts really well with clients and handles and addresses complex matters really well.” Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2023

“The quality of her work is excellent, her judgment is incredible and her legal analysis is brilliant. She always comes up with creative solutions to complex problems." Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2022.

"She is very straightforward, very focused and she gets the deal done. She is pragmatic and very good with clients. I would highly recommend her for tricky situations." Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2022.

“When I think of the intersection of copyright and the visual arts, she is the first person I think of." Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2021.

"She is very accessible, easy to talk to, listens very well and addresses the issues that we bring to her attention. She doesn't overcomplicate; she knows how to find the right balance, looking at the big picture versus detail that is involved." Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2021.

Awards and Recognition

Top 100: New York - Metro Super Lawyer 2023

Top 50: 2023 Women New York - Metro Super Lawyer 2023

Top 50: 2022 Women New York - Metro Super Lawyers List

2013 - 2023 Super Lawyer in New York-area for Business Litigation and Intellectual Property Litigation

2021 - 2023 Ranked in Chambers HNW as a top U.S. art and cultural property attorney

2023 - 2024 Included in Best Lawyers in America (Entertainment - Motion Pictures and Television)

2024 Included in Best Lawyers in America (Art Law)

2020 Named on The Power List: Top Female Attorneys in the Art World by Art She Says

2020 Featured in 10 Trailblazing Women Working in Art Law by The Art Gorgeous

Professional Affiliations

Chair, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Art Law Committee

Adjunct Professor, NYU Steinhardt School, Visual Arts and the Law Course

Chair, Trusts & Estates magazine’s Art, Antiques & Auctions Editorial Advisory Committee

Immediate Past Co-Chair, Art Law Committee, New York County Lawyers Association

Member, Copyright Law Society

Admissions

New York, Texas, U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York

Education

University of Texas (BA, with highest honors, 1999)

University of Texas School of Law (JD, with honors, 2002) 

  • Member of the Texas Law Review

  • Order of the Coif

University of Cambridge, Clare Hall (LLM, first-class honors, 2006)