Catherine Henney

Practice Areas

Catherine is a Legal Director, with long-standing experience in both the EHS and Inquiries & Investigations teams. She heads up the Health & Safety team in Manchester

She heads up the Health & Safety team in Manchester. Catherine has spent the last 14 years practising as a dual specialist in health and safety, and inquests and inquiries work. She has over 17 years’ experience as a specialist in criminal regulatory law, where she has advised and defended organisations and individuals across all sectors in relation to investigations and prosecutions being led by the HSE; EA; ONR; Police; Local Authorities; and Fire Service.

Her experience in dealing with workplace fatalities and regulatory investigations makes her an ideal candidate for Inquiry work, giving her the core skills of handling complex investigations; dealing with sensitive subject matter; and managing particularly vulnerable witnesses. As such, Catherine acted as a leading lawyer in the Independent Inquiry into Telford Child Sexual Exploitation (IITCSE), the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry (MSI), and the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry (IJCI), where in each case Eversheds Sutherland acted in the Solicitor to the Inquiry role.

Between July 2022 and April 2024, Catherine was instructed to act as Solicitor to the Sabina Rizvi Inquest – a 4-week Article 2 Judge-led inquest at the Old Bailey in London, which took place 21 years after the shooting of Ms Rizvi and after many years of high-profile campaigning by the family.

Catherine has a Masters in Health & Safety and Environmental Law, which assists her greatly when advising our corporate clients in relation to health and safety compliance, as well as crisis and risk management. She frequently works with leadership teams to look at their safety strategies and culture, and consider ways to improve safety governance.

Catherine is a member of the Women in Health and Safety network as well as the HSLA, and is Government Security Cleared at Developed Vetting (DV) level.

Clients applaud Catherine’s commercial thinking, responsiveness and attention to detail. They say: “She is an innovator, who helps reduce accident frequency and severity by working alongside clients”; and “Her particular strength is her innovative and proactive work alongside our leadership team to promote an improved safety culture”.