OUR LAWYERS

Sharon Playford

Partner in Commercial Contracts, Intellectual Property, IT Telecoms
& Digital and Sports, Media & Entertainment

+44 (0)845 257 9449

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Sharon is a commercial solicitor with over 15 years’ experience of working with businesses as their in-house lawyer. Sharon has worked with large publishing groups, communications and advertising agencies as well as multinational media organisations. Sharon is particularly experienced in advising the creative and communications industries and represents many advertising, design and media agencies as well as software developers and IT consultants.

Sharon’s extensive in-house experience means that she is extremely commercially astute and her skills are equally suited to the needs of start-ups and SME’s and Sharon has acted for a wide range of organisations including interior designers, charities and retailers.

Sharon's Experience

  • Sharon worked for 11 years as the company solicitor for The Daily Telegraph. Sharon’s role was a broad commercial role advising the business in relation to their commercial contracts, strategy and intellectual property. Sharon was also solely responsible for data protection issues for the company.
  • Sharon then worked for 3 years as the in-house solicitor for Loewy Group (since acquired by Writtle Holdings), a group of approximately 16 marketing and communications agencies. Here Sharon concentrated on advising the group agencies on their contracts with their clients and suppliers as well as intellectual property and legal compliance issues.
  • Sharon was the first in-house lawyer for Beattie McGuinness Bungay, a high profile independent creative advertising agency based in Covent Garden. This was an exciting and challenging role and Sharon’s advice was extremely valuable in ensuring that the agency’s intellectual property and financial interests were protected.
  • Since 2012, Sharon has been building her Excello practice and now provides legal services to many other businesses including various advertising, technology, product design and innovation agencies where Sharon’s work includes advising on intellectual property issues, drawing up standard template agreements as well as negotiating high value contracts with the agencies’ clients including many high profile brand names.

Sharon is married with two daughters. Sharon is also a keen cook and when time allows likes to indulge in a spot of creative writing.

Testimonials

Sharon Playford and Excello Law work very closely with our in-house legal team, with a sound knowledge of our media business and the flexibility to advise on a range of commercial legal and contract work when we need extra resource. The Excello business model allows us to have continuity and direct access to senior legal expertise through Sharon and it’s a partnership that has continued for many years.

Catherine Balson, Head of Legal, Telegraph Media Group Limited

Sharon is always responsive, has great attention to detail, is knowledgeable and professional.  She combines all this with a strong commercial attitude to overcome obstacles rather than create them.

Claire Hollinghurst, COO, Josh Wood Colour