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 > Corporate and commercial > Partnership
(Next Generation Partners)Recognised as a ‘superb firm who are really at the top of the partnership game,’ Fox & Partners has a broad partnership offering which covers both contentious and non-contentious matters. While the group focuses on dispute resolution, it is capable of handling exits and retirements, discrimination and harassment, and whistleblowing allegations, as well as lounge clauses, investigations, and disciplinary issues. With a growing client base, the team is predominantly instructed by businesses from the professional services and financial services sectors. Co-heading the department are partnership specialist Catriona Watt and litigation expert Caroline Field. Watt is sought after for her expertise in departures and arrivals, partner rights and entitlements, and fiduciary duty matters, while Field is noted for her aptitude in leading on disputes regarding rights and entitlements on exit, misconduct, and remuneration. The practice also benefits from the proficiency of Dean Fuller who concentrates on contentious and advisory matters such as disputes, partner moves, and cross-border matters. Ivor Adair stands out for his experience advising hedge fund and law firm partners on contentious exits and LLPs. His position in the Legislative and Policy Committee of the Employment Lawyers Association makes him an asset to the team. Other notable names in the department include Shoshana Bacall and Shiv Raja, both of whom are adept in advising on conduct and harassment investigations, as well as vastly experienced firm founder Ronnie Fox
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London > Employment > Senior executives
Distinguished by its ‘tactical and strategic brilliance, Fox & Partners is regularly instructed to handle discrimination, harassment and whistleblowing allegations, as well as regulatory complaints. Caroline Field is often engaged to represent senior executives in disputes related to rights and entitlements, as well as misconduct allegations; she jointly leads the practice alongside Ivor Adair, whose client base stems from the financial services, technology, insurance and media sectors. Catriona Watt is noted for her proficiency in senior-level contentious departures and arrivals. Dean Fuller is well versed in cases involving industry-specific issues, such as regulatory references, non-financial misconduct concerns and corporate governance constraints.
Lawyer Rankings
- Next Generation Partners London > Corporate and commercial > Partnership
- Partnership London > Corporate and commercial
- Senior executives London > Employment