Catriona Watt > Fox & Partners > London, England > Lawyer Profile
Fox & Partners Offices
4-6 THROGMORTON AVENUE
LONDON
EC2N 2DL
England
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Catriona Watt
Work Department
Contentious Employment and Partnership
Position
Catriona Watt is a Partner specialising in contentious partnership law as well as employment and discrimination law. She advises professional firms, partners, senior executives and employers, focusing primarily on the financial, insurance, private equity and professional services sectors. Her unique experience of acting on both sides of disputes stands her in good stead to understand the pressures and leverage of each.
Catriona has a wealth of experience in advising on complex team move situations in which there are usually allegations of breach of restrictive covenants and fiduciary duties and potential forfeiture claims. Catriona brings a strategic and commercial approach to advising on senior and board level disputes and contentious exits from partnership structures. She advises on other contentious senior level employment and partnership issues and has particular experience in dealing with private equity partnership disputes. Catriona often advises on misconduct investigations, including harassment, involving senior individuals in regulated sectors including legal and financial services, working with regulatory and PR specialists where necessary.
Where litigation cannot be avoided, Catriona draws on her varied experience of litigating partnership and employment disputes in the High Court, Employment Tribunal and in arbitration.
Catriona is recognised in Chambers UK and the Legal 500 for her expertise in contentious partnership and employment law: “She’s good at developing strategy for litigation and is creative about identifying legal avenues we can use in addition to being very thorough with her preparation. “Catriona is endlessly patient with clients and really takes her time to find out what they need or want to achieve in litigation, as well as being intelligent and creative in getting them to the position they need to be in.” “She is very calm, sees the bigger picture and takes strategic oversight of the matter.” (Chambers 2022)
Career
Admitted as a solicitor 2008; Burness LLP (now Burness Paul LLP) 2006 – 2008; Fox & Partners (formerly Fox) – 2008 – present.
Memberships
Employment Law Association, Association of Partnership Practitioners and past Co-Chair of the Young Lawyers’ Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA).
Education
University of Aberdeen 1999 – 2003 – LLB (Hons) 2:1; Glasgow Graduate School of Law – 2004-2005 – Diploma in Legal Practice; BPP Law School – 2008 – Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test.
Lawyer Rankings
London > Employment > Senior executives
The ‘subject matter experts’ at Fox & Partners ‘come up with pragmatic, smart recommendations’, with a particular focus on the professional, insurance and financial services sectors. Alongside an experienced contentious practice, the firm advises on post-termination covenants and the implications for executive moves. Caroline Field is experienced at litigating in the Employment Tribunal, courts and other dispute resolution forums. She co-leads the team with Ivor Adair, who is ‘a brilliant technical lawyer and very strategic’. Also active in the area is Catriona Watt , whose expertise includes contentious departures and arrivals and negotiating terms of exit.
London > Corporate and commercial > Partnership
(Next Generation Partners)Fox & Partners is hailed for ‘ bursting with talented individuals‘. The practice predominantly assists partnerships and individuals in the legal profession in addition to clients in the accountancy, insurance and financial services sectors. Catriona Watt advises on the full range of advisory and contentious cases including departures and arrivals, partner rights and entitlements and negotiating terms of exit for both firms and LLP members. Caroline Field is an experienced litigator who handles some of the most contentious and often novel cases; where necessary in the Employment Tribunal, High Court, and other dispute resolution forums. The team however aims to negotiate cases in order to preserve reputations. Dean Fuller undertakes advisory and disputes work in conjunction with related regulatory and corporate law while Ivor Adair also advises on acrimonious exits; the enforceability of post-termination covenants and potential claims under the equality act legislation and where partnership cases are entangled with issues such as alleged discrimination or harassment. Associates Shiv Raja (‘one to watch in the future‘) and Eleanor Diamond are highlighted and Ronnie Fox 
continues with the firm as a consultant. Senior associate Shoshana Bacall is also recommended.