Catriona Watt

Practice Areas

Catriona Watt specialises in contentious partnership law as well as employment and discrimination law. She advises professional firms, partners, senior executives and employers across a variety of sectors. Catriona often advises on complex team move situations in which there are usually restrictive covenant, fiduciary duties and potential forfeiture aspects, as well as senior and board level disputes and contentious exits from partnership structures in professional services, financial services, insurance and private equity. She advises on other contentious senior level employment and partnership issues and has particular experience in dealing with private equity partnership disputes and in misconduct investigations, including harassment, involving senior individuals and law firm partners. Where litigation cannot be avoided, Catriona draws on her experience of litigating partnership and employment disputes in the High Court, Employment Tribunal and in arbitration.

Career

Catriona Watt joined Fox in 2008, and is dual-qualified in Scotland and England and Wales.

Professional Memberships

Member of the Association of Partnership Practitioners, Employment Lawyers Association and International Bar Association (former Chair of Young Lawyers Committee).

Publications

Articles written by Catriona have appeared in the Times, The Financial Times, IBA newsletters and Personnel Today. Catriona has been interviewed on national radio and various podcasts, including the Fox podcast "Foxed?", and regularly speaks on specialist panels.

Work Highlights

• Advising a senior partner in a Private Equity Firm in the event of forfeiture of high value carried interest, and litigating across several forums, including arbitration, the employment tribunal and the English courts, as well as coordinating proceedings in other jurisdictions.

• Representing a partner in a professional services firm in High Court proceedings relating to his move to a competitor with others

• Advising various law firms in respect of senior level contentious issues and exits, including in relation to regulatory misconduct and alleged discrimination, including coordinating other specialist regulatory advice where required

• Advising a US tech company on the acquisition of a team of key market players, mitigating the risk of litigation

• Advising a senior level team of individuals moving to an investment bank