Sarah joined Clarke Willmott in 2022 from Norton Rose’s London office.
Sarah is a Partner in the Corporate & Commercial team, specialising in intellectual property (IP), information technology (IT) and commercial law.
Sarah offers IP, IT and data protection advice. She is an IP specialist non-contentious lawyer having worked in IP firms and IP, IT teams in private practice throughout her career. Her work covers the full range of contractual and e-commerce issues relevant to businesses seeking to enter new markets or exploit new technology and she provides full IP/Tech transactional support for corporate M&A, disposals and investments.
Sarah particularly enjoys advising innovative businesses in protecting and exploiting their innovation and IP/Tech rights in a new business set-up. She is familiar with software platform terms and SaaS agreements.
Sarah is dual qualified in England & Wales and New Zealand. She joined the Linklaters London office in their IP, IT and Telecoms speciality team after qualifying at the patent attorney practice, Baldwin, Son & Carey in New Zealand. She has worked for PwC’s multi-disciplinary law firm as the London legal team’s Head of IP and was a partner at Carter-Ruck, a well-known libel, IP and litigation firm in London. Sarah has a strong in-house background from her years working as a consultant in the City of London for a number of key corporates, including Bupa and CME Group as well as smaller innovative companies specialising in goods and services for the growing digital marketplace.
Sarah’s expertise includes:
- Drafting, reviewing and negotiating IP/Tech focused collaborative arrangements including framework, supplier, sub-contractor, platform agreements; master service agreements (MSAs) and statement of works (SoWs); confidentiality agreements
- Advising on specialist Intellectual Property rights agreements, including trade mark licences, IP assignments or software licensing, distribution agreements, supplier agreements, amongst others
- Providing IP, IT and commercial contract transactional support for corporate M&A, de-mergers, disposals or investments, including due diligence on all registered IPR such as patents, designs, trade marks, database rights, domain names and software, copyright and other intangible rights
- Advising on the impact of privacy rights on commercial arrangements and contracts through to reviewing customer facing subscription or licensing agreements in the digital or service provider space
- Advising on the full range of commercial documents required in a new business set-up
Experience
- IP transactional support on corporate M&A matters including the divestment by a UK petroleum company of its Swiss holdings; preparation of key licensing and transitional agreements governing the migration of the IP/IT assets sold
- IP/IT and commercial contracts due diligence for management sale of leading fund data specialist company in Luxembourg to a key financial services company
- Advising on and drafting premium spirit licences, distribution and supply agreements for a global beverage company’s 27 EMEA branches, including key UK supplier procurement contracts
- Risk related issues for wealth management company’s UK based subsidiaries, including advising on liability and indemnity provisions; privacy and transfer of data concerns and cross licensing of IP rights in Works
- Acting as temporary UK General Counsel for a beauty-based franchise for five months as it set up in the UK; liaising with its overseas offices, overseeing the implementation of legal template documents; reviewing healthcare commercial contracts; advising on liability and risks in material contracts; brand management
- Advised on EMEA e-commerce and financial service contracts provided by CME Group’s IT based subsidiaries; updated T&Cs, handled due diligence and compliance matters, confidentiality and data controller concerns, IP aspects of commercial contracts; finalised IP/IT sales facing subscription agreements, software development agreements, market data licences
- Conducted commercially sensitive negotiations for overseas clients seeking to invest in UK high-tech companies with patented technology in the automotive industries; carried out due diligence and structured projects for several large Japanese and German car manufacturers; cross licensed patent pooled technology
- HQ legal advisor for the e-commerce digital division of Bupa; handled web related legal, cybersecurity and data protection issues world-wide and supported Bupa’s global business units on technology, consumer, e-commerce and digital matters for healthcare related investments, sponsorships and/or global marketing campaigns
- Managed Scottish & Newcastle plc trade mark and patent portfolio, EMEA Guinness, Centre Parcs, Foster’s licenced portfolios including distribution, brewing, chain of supply and licensing agreements; Foster’s European wide sponsorship of Formula One
- Advised high net worth individuals on how best to protect, exploit or licence their global brand portfolios or innovative services to generate or maximise income and royalty flows