Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in commercial law with a particular specialism in the technology and media sectors. She advises business owners on a broad range of contracts including supply and services contracts, advertising and promotional contracts, brand licensing and exploitation, broadcasting deals, production contracts, and publishing contracts.
She has a particular interest in the general publishing and videogame sectors and has extensively advised on these areas.
Sarah is also an experienced speaker at various client and internal and sector briefings.
Sarah has been lock-step with our organisation throughout our growth. She is exactly the sort of lawyer that you need on your team. She is incredibly experienced and pragmatic, taking time to recognise the needs of the business and working flexibly to help us accomplish our ambitious goals.
CEO, Game Publisher
Expertise
Brand Management & Licensing
- White label service contracts.
- Media deals.
- Large group re-organisations.
- Portfolio management and strategy.
- Licensing.
- Dispute resolution.
Commercial Contracts
- Contracts for products and services (bespoke and standard terms).
- Outsourcing, in-sourcing and logistics.
Data Protection
- Advising on internal compliance.
- Customer terms and conditions.
- Regulatory issues.
Media
- Broadcast commissioning agreements.
- Production agreements.
- Advice on structuring TV deals.
- Licensing and merchandising and distribution.
- Advertising agency terms.
- Data protection compliance.
- Regulatory compliance and disputes.
- Theatre touring licences, development options and exhibition licences.
- Publishing contracts.
- White label publishing deals.
- Advertising contracts.
- Sales promotions compliance.
Technology
- Systems development and maintenance.
- Hosting.
- Database licensing.
- Large-scale technology development contracts.
- Technology migration projects.
- App/games publishing agreements
Experience
Acquisitions
- Key adviser on multi-million-pound acquisitions of major household brands such as Britax, Just Retirement, major football clubs, Yo Sushi, and Wagamama.
- Advising on the acquisition of Tiger Aspect TV production company by IMG.
- Acquisition of TAG Worldwide (the world’s largest independent marketing execution and production company) to Williams Lea.
- Key advisor on the acquisition of Friends Reunited by Brightsolid Limited.
- Acquisition of multi-million-pound medical equipment for the private hospital sector.
Commercial Contracts
- Advice on consumer issues in advertising such as food labelling for major brands including Campbell Soup, Tropicana, Yum!, E&J Gallo and Anheuser Busch.
- Advising on multi-million-pound logistics contract for major household name.
- Advising on agency terms for various large agencies including BBDO.
- Advising seller on all commercial and IP aspects of the sale of a technology company to Amazon.
- Advising DC Thomson on various international co-productions and ‘white label’ publishing deals with major household names including Nickelodeon and Disney.
- Advised a private casino on a broad range of commercial contracts.
- Advised a private casino as their in-house General Counsel.
- Advised on commercial contracts for videogame/app development, platform publishing deals, agency and distribution deals, merchandising, and marketing contracts.
Corporate Support
- Key adviser on multi-million-pound acquisitions of major household brands such as household consumer brands, major football clubs, and major restaurant chains.
- Advised on the sale and acquisition of large TV production companies.
- Advised on the acquisition of the world’s largest independent marketing execution and production company/
- Advised on the sale of the UK’s major online transport company.
Data Protection
- Advised Notonthehighstreet.com on its DPA and GDPR compliance.
- Data protection advisor to Omnicom Group.
- Advising TJX (owner of TK Maxx) on regulatory action following one of the largest historical data breaches involving 45 million data records.
Media
- Advises a fast-growing videogames publisher on all of its commercial contracts and strategy as outsourced General Counsel.
- Advised a leading technology provider in the education sector on a variety of business-critical supply and client contracts.
- Advised on the sale of a major production company by a household name in the television world.
- Advised on the acquisition of several major TV production companies.
- Advised numerous household names in the consumer goods sector on a wide variety of media contracts (marketing, advertising, licensing, supply).
Retail
- Advised various high-profile online platforms on their terms and conditions and on GDPR issues.
- Advised on consumer issues in advertising such as food labelling for major brands including Tropicana, Yum!, E&J Gallo and Anheuser Busch.
- Advised TJX (owner of TK Maxx) on regulatory action following one of the largest historical data breaches involving 45 million data records.
- Advised Campbell Soup on various sales promotions.
- Advised Jo Malone on a range of commercial agreements including franchise agreements.
Telecoms & Technology
- Advised on various business-critical contracts for a leading technology supplier to the education sector and also to the travel sector.
- Advised on a multi-million-pound passenger information system in the airline industry.
- Advised on the launch of a major new platform for a high-street restaurant chain.
Gambling, Gaming & Betting
- Advises a fast-growing videogames publisher on all of its commercial contracts and strategy as outsourced General Counsel.
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Commercial Contracts 2017
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Brand Management 2017
Recognised by Chambers UK for Advertising and Marketing 2010–2013
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Media and Entertainment 2010–2013
Ranked in Super Lawyers 2013
Career
Sarah qualified as a solicitor in 2003. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2016, she worked at the following firms:
- Taylor Wessing
- Macfarlanes