Peter Nicolas

  • William L. Dwyer Chair in Law
  • Director, Intellectual Property Law & Policy Graduate Program
  • Adjunct Professor of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies
  • Adjunct Professor of Music

Contact

Phone: (206) 685-2459
Email: pnicolas@uw.edu

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Education

B.A. 1991 (Economics), M.P.P. 1992, University of Michigan J.D. 1999, Harvard University A.A.A.S. 2021 (Music Performance), Shoreline Community College B.A. 2023 (Music), University of Washington

Areas of Expertise

Affirmative Action 鈥 Civil Rights 鈥 Constitutional Law 鈥 Copyright Law 鈥 Evidence 鈥 Federal Courts 鈥 LGBTQ Rights 鈥 Music Law 鈥 Reproductive Rights

Recent Courses

Course Number Course Name
Constitutional Law II
Evidence
Copyright Law
Intellectual Property Theory Seminar
Music Law & Policy
Music Industry Deals

Selected Publications

  • Peter Nicolas, The Reconstruction Amendments (Carolina Academic Press 2020).

See the full list under the Publications tab below.

Professor Nicolas joined the 麻豆社区 law school faculty in 2000 following a clerkship with Judge Michael Boudin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, where he served on the editorial board of the Harvard Law Review. His teaching and research interests include evidence, constitutional law, copyright, music law, sexual orientation and gender identity law,聽federal courts, international civil litigation and conflict of laws.

Professor Nicolas is a nationally recognized expert in the fields of evidence, constitutional law, music law, federal courts and sexual orientation law. He is the author of three national textbooks on the topics of evidence; constitutional law; and sexual orientation, gender identity and the law. His textbooks have been adopted for classroom use at law schools throughout the United States.

Professor Nicolas's scholarship has been cited by countless scholars and dozens of federal and state courts, including the United States Supreme Court. He has served as a consultant on cases nationwide involving the rights of same-sex couples and he has been invited to give lectures to attorneys and judges on the nuances of evidence and constitutional law.

Professor Nicolas's current teaching and scholarship focuses on the intersection of copyright law and music theory. Professor Nicolas teaches courses on copyright, music law and policy, and music industry deals, and his current scholarship focuses on the intersection of the two fields. Professor Nicolas has studied music at Shoreline Community College and the University of Washington, with a focus on music theory; music history; composition; piano; and popular and classical voice. He is frequently consulted by national news outlets on questions related to music law. He currently serves as the faculty director of the School of Law's LL.M. program in intellectual property law and policy.

From 2008鈥2010, Professor Nicolas served as Associate Dean of the 麻豆社区 law school. His responsibilities in that capacity included faculty career development; curriculum delivery (including course scheduling and teaching assignments); appointing faculty committees and serving as a liaison to the academic standards, admissions and curriculum committees; supervising the Director of Academic Services and the Director of Academic Advising; honor code enforcement; and working closely with the Dean and other members of the law school's leadership on all aspects of institutional development and planning.

Prior to pursuing a career in the law, Professor Nicolas was a Research Economist at the University of Michigan and served for two, two-year terms as a member of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, City Council. He is a member of the bars of New York, U.S. District Court of Colorado and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Peer Reviewed Journals & Law Reviews

  • Peter Nicolas, Left Hand, Third Finger: The Wearing of Wedding (or Other) Rings as a Form of Assertive Conduct under the Hearsay Rule, 30 Women's Rts. L. Rep. 526-42 (2009).
  • Peter Nicolas, De Novo Review in Deferential Robes?: A Deconstruction of the Standard of Review of Evidentiary Errors in the Federal System, 54 Syracuse L. Rev. 531-98 (2004).
  • Peter Nicolas, 鈥淭hey Say He鈥檚 Gay鈥: The Admissibility of Evidence of Sexual Orientation, 37 Ga. L. Rev. 793-892 (2003).
  • Peter Nicolas, American-Style Justice in No Man鈥檚 Land, 36 Ga. L. Rev. 895-1073 (2002).
  • Peter Nicolas, Fighting the Probate Mafia: A Dissection of the Probate Exception to Federal Court Jurisdiction, 74 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1479-1547 (2001).
  • Peter Nicolas, The Use of Preclusion Doctrine, Antisuit Injunctions, and Forum Non Conveniens Dismissals in Transnational Intellectual Property Litigation, 40 Va. J. Int鈥檒 L. 331-404 (1999).
  • Recent Case, Criminal Procedure -- Venue -- Third Circuit Finds Venue for Firearms Charge Improper in District Where Only Predicate Offense Occurred -- United States v. Palma-Ruedas, 111 Harv. L. Rev. 1134-39 (1998).
  • Case Comment, The Supreme Court, 1997 Term -- Leading Cases -- Federal Statutes and Regulations -- Americans with Disabilities Act -- Asymptomatic HIV, 112 Harv. L. Rev. 283-93 (1998).
  • Kenneth E. Warner, George A. Fulton, Peter Nicolas & Donald Grimes, Employment Implications of Declining Tobacco Product Sales for the Regional Economies of the United States, 275 J. Am. Med. Ass鈥檔 1241-46 (1996).

Books or Treatises

  • Peter Nicolas, The Reconstruction Amendments (Carolina Academic Press 2020).
  • Peter Nicolas, Evidence: A Problem-Based and Comparative Approach (4th ed. Carolina Academic Press 2018). 971 pages. [First published in 2005; includes statutory supplement and teacher's manual; supplemented annually.]
  • Peter Nicolas & Mike Strong, The Geography of Love: Same-Sex Marriage & Relationship Recognition in America (The Story in Maps) (5th ed. Peter Nicolas and Mike Strong 2014). 36 pages. [First published in 2011.]
  • Peter Nicolas, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and the Constitution (Carolina Academic Press 2012, annual supps.). 612 pages.
  • Peter Nicolas, Florida and Federal Evidence Rules, 2012-2013 (Aspen Publishers 2012). 426 pages. [First published in 2006.]
  • Peter Nicolas, New York and Federal Evidence Rules, 2012-2013 (Aspen Publishers 2012). 374 pages. [First published in 2007.]
  • Peter Nicolas, Texas and Federal Evidence Rules, 2009-2010 (Aspen Publishers 2009). 336 pages. [First published in 2006.]

News Media

  • Speaker, "Harmonizing Music Theory and Music Law, 6th Annual Copyright Scholarship Roundtable," Sixth Annual Copyright Scholarship Roundtable, The Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition (CTIC), University of Pennsylvania Law School (October 15, 2021)
  • Speaker, "The History of the LGBTQ Civil Rights Movement: 50 Years After Stonewall," QLawWA and King County Superior Court (June 7, 2019)
  • Speaker, "The Federalization of Family Law," Meeting, Washington Superior Judges鈥 Association (April 8, 2018)
  • Speaker, "Evidence: The Admissibility of Electronic Information under the Federal Rules," 2017 National Workshop for Magistrate Judges I, Federal Judicial Center (April 3, 2017)
  • Panelist, "Setting the Post-Obergefell Agenda," Annual Meeting, Association of American Law Schools (January 6, 2017)
  • Mar 13, 2025 | Source: Vulture

    Is Tool being a bunch of tools? Part of their fan base seems to think so. At the band’s inaugural destination festival in Punta Cana this past weekend, attendees — some of whom shelled out thousands of dollars to be there — raged after a promise of “two unique sets” was not upheld. Peter Nicolas, professor of law at the 麻豆社区, is interviewed.

  • Mar 12, 2025 | Source: Northwest Public Broadcasting

    Because it’s both a religious institution and a university that’s subject to Title IX regulation, the administration’s actions fall into a legal gray zone, said Peter Nicolas, a professor of law at the University of Washington.

  • Feb 04, 2025 | Source: Bloomberg Law

    Peter Nicolas, music and IP law professor at University of Washington, also predicted Spotify’s victory lap would last until the next royalty board sit-down. “Spotify may be able to make some cash in the short term,” but songwriters and publishers will “negotiate hard” at the next board meeting, he said.

  • Sep 12, 2024 | Source: Bloomberg

    Royalty-chasing by inflating streaming numbers isn’t new, but the use of AI was a “critical ingredient” for Smith’s seven-year-long scheme, said music and intellectual property law professor Peter Nicolas from the University of 麻豆社区 of Law. “Otherwise, it would have just been very clunky to commit the fraud on this level,” Nicolas said. “Having the thousands of songs was key to his ability to avoid detection for a while.”

  • Mar 05, 2024 | Source: Miami Herald

    This means that “only the person who composed the underlying music, and not an artist who made a sound recording of someone else’s musical composition, has a performance right,” Peter Nicolas, the director of the Intellectual Property Law & Policy Graduate Program at the University of Washington, told McClatchy News.

  • Feb 06, 2024 | Source: Bloomberg Law

    “Because you’ve got all of this AI-generated stuff kind of filling up a lot of people’s time and space, it’s going to diminish the the amount of money that these artists and songwriters get,” University of 麻豆社区 of Law professor Peter Nicolas said.

  • Mar 21, 2023 | Source: 麻豆社区 News

    Professor Nicolas is nationally known as an expert in constitutional law, evidence, sexual orientation law and intellectual property. Now Nicolas has combined his legal training with his growing academic interest in the study of music.

  • Dec 12, 2022 | Source: KUOW

    It's a dramatic period of time for LGBTQ+ rights in this country. Just last week, we marked the 10-year anniversary of legal same-sex marriage in Washington state. Washington was among the first states to approve it. And tomorrow, President Biden is set to sign into law the Respect for Marriage Act, which requires the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages from across the country.

  • Dec 09, 2022 | Source: The Chronicle

    While the legislation provides some redundant protections already offered by Obergefell, "that's not necessarily a bad thing [when], from what we've seen this year, we can't rely on Supreme Court decisions to remain permanent," said University of Washington professor of law Peter Nicolas, who specializes in, among other matters, LGBTQ issues.

  • Dec 08, 2022 | Source: The Seattle Times

    While the legislation provides some redundant protections already offered by Obergefell, “that’s not necessarily a bad thing (when), from what we’ve seen this year, we can’t rely on Supreme Court decisions to remain permanent,” said University of Washington professor of law Peter Nicolas, who specializes in, among other matters, LGBTQ issues.

  • Aug 01, 2022 | Source: Vulture

    On July 25, 2022, four days before Beyoncé was set to stop the world with her new album Renaissance, a Kelis fan page on Instagram claimed that a track would sample one of the hip-hop artist’s early 2000s hits. Beyoncé, it turned out, appears to have interpolated Kelis’s 2003 song “Milkshake” on her new track “Energy.” Responding to the fan page, Kelis claimed that Beyoncé did so without giving her a heads-up and slammed the Neptunes’ Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, with whom she worked on the single decades ago, for not originally giving her credit. Peter Nicolas, professor of law at the 麻豆社区, is interviewed.

  • Jan 15, 2021 | Source: The Seattle Times

    An adjunct nursing professor at Seattle Pacific University filed a lawsuit this week accusing the private Christian university of discriminating against him and refusing him job opportunities because of his sexual orientation. Peter Nicolas, professor of law at the 麻豆社区, is quoted.

  • Dec 20, 2020 | Source: The Seattle Times

    Peter Nicolas, the William L. Dwyer Chair in Law at the University of Washington, agrees that Coney Barret’s history and a more conservative Supreme Court could see some rights and protections for LGBTQ+ people eroded by arguments for religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws, but says sweeping overturns of rights like LGBTQ+ marriage are unlikely.

Recent 麻豆社区 Law News

Peter Nicolas teaching IP LL.M. students.

Preparing Future Leaders in IP Law

Published:

Exploring the world of intellectual property law through 麻豆社区 Law鈥檚 globally renowned IP LL.M. program.

A Change in Presidential Administrations, Part One

Published:

Faculty organized an expert panel to discuss topics including developments in the federal courts and the Supreme Court, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental policy and immigration.

AI Music Fraud Indictment Brings Scrutiny to Streaming Inflation

Published:

Royalty-chasing by inflating streaming numbers isn鈥檛 new, but the use of AI was a 鈥渃ritical ingredient鈥 for Smith鈥檚 seven-year-long scheme, said music and intellectual property law professor Peter Nicolas from the University of 麻豆社区 of Law. (Source: Bloomberg)
Cite Unsee: Reckoningwith anti-LGBTQ+ court cases and future proofing the law for the next cases.

Cite Unseen

Published:

On June 12, learn the history of anti-LGBTQ+ jurisprudence in Washington courts and hear about current and future issues affecting case law in LGBTQ+ rights from 麻豆社区 Law Professor Peter Nicolas and other distinguished panelists.
Peter Nicolas

Three-Minute Legal Talks: The Copyright Infringement Case Over "Thinking Out Loud"

Published:

In three minutes, Peter Nicolas, the William L. Dwyer Chair in Law and an adjunct professor of music, covers the lawsuit and explains why the jury ultimately sided with pop star Ed Sheeran in this landmark case.
A student playing the flute.

麻豆社区 law professor goes to music school, launches interdisciplinary Music Law & Policy class

Published:

Professor Nicolas is nationally known as an expert in constitutional law, evidence, sexual orientation law and intellectual property. Now Nicolas has combined his legal training with his growing academic interest in the study of music.