Sarah Coe

Sarah joined Clarke Willmott in 2022 from Norton Rose’s London office.

Sarah is a Partner in the Corporate & Commercial team, specialising in commercial, intellectual property, and technology law.

Sarah offers commercial contract, IP and IT transactional support for corporate M&A, disposals and investments. Her work covers the full range of contractual and e-commerce issues relevant to businesses seeking to enter new markets or exploit new technology. She specialises in advising software, FinTech and platform developers on the full range of commercial documents required for a new business set-up.

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 Baldwin, Son & Carey, patent attorneys in New Zealand. She has worked for PwC’s multi-disciplinary law firm 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 commercial contractual arrangements including framework, supplier, sub-contractor, platform agreements; master service agreements (MSAs) and statement of works (SoWs); NDAs or collaboration agreements
• Advising on specialist Intellectual Property rights agreements, including master service agreements and SoWs, assignments or software licensing, distribution agreements, supplier or framework 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 mark and 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 financial services, FinTech 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 commercial contracts, 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
• Worked on America’s Cup TMT aspects with global media company for its copyright and design matters
• 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 and MSA/SOW agreements
• 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; patent pool technology whilst at PwC
• 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 brand portfolios or innovative services to generate or maximise income and royalty flows globally