Brenda L. Pritchard

About Brenda L. Pritchard

Brenda L. Pritchard helps brand owners and creative agencies get campaigns out the door that respect the law and still keep the original idea intact. A partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office, Brenda works in advertising and marketing law, with focus areas that reach into life sciences, food and beverage, and gaming and contest law. Dozens of brands and agencies around the world turn to Brenda for advice, and more than thirty years of work span nearly every platform and kind of product or service.

The road into this field started during law school at the University of Western Ontario. Brenda's sister, a creative director at an ad agency, suggested applying for a summer writing job, and the résumé landed with the lawyer who acted for that agency. A year later, while Brenda was articling, that same lawyer called with an offer, wanting "a creative thinker who could write." That firm specialized in advertising law, and the work there covered big marketing clients as well as agencies, so Brenda learned the business from both sides. Called to the Ontario bar in 1984, Brenda has worked in Gowling WLG's advertising and marketing practice since the 1980s and is a past leader of the firm's advertising and product regulatory law group.

Writing and teaching run all through Brenda's career. Brenda co-wrote Advertising and Marketing Law in Canada and for many years wrote the "It's the Law" column in Marketing Magazine, with legal columns for Sales Promo News and Strategy Magazine as well. Brenda speaks often to the bar and to people in advertising and entertainment, and has enjoyed mentoring young lawyers, looking early on for students who are creative and curious, who can work through very complex laws and who catch the subtleties of language.

Outside the office, Brenda jumps horses over fences that keep getting lower. On comparative advertising, Brenda puts the basic principle plainly: the comparison has to be relevant to consumers and statistically sound.