Bio

Cat is the only solicitor to have won the prestigious title of “Solicitor of the Year” twice, at the Law Awards of Scotland in 2015 and 2012, having previously been short-listed for the award in 2010, and in 2016 led her team to victory in the Scott & Co Legal Awards, winning “Litigation Team of the Year”. She has law degrees in English and French Law from Leicester, and in Scots Law from Edinburgh, and holds a Diplome d’Etudes Juridiques Francaises from the Universite Robert Schumann in Strasbourg. Prior to joining MBM in 2008, she spent several years in a large litigation practice in Edinburgh, before becoming an Advocate at the Scottish Bar in 1998. She spent 10 years in busy practice as an advocate before joining MBM, and having undertaken cases in the Sheriff Court, the Court of Session and the Appeal Court, she has been able to apply her extensive litigation and courtroom experience to the work she now undertakes for her clients. She sits on the Lord President’s Consultative Committee on Commercial Actions, chaired by Lord Doherty, and has also been appointed to the Law Society of Scotland’s Professional Conduct Committee, which sits every month. Additionally, she is also a Writer to the Signet (WS) and has been appointed to the Council of the WS Society. Her clients include individuals, technology companies, property developers and entrepreneurs. She specialises in both financial claims, against banks and other financial institutions, and in professional negligence. She is a member of the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association, and the sole Scottish representative of the International Banking Litigation Network, an association of law firms across Europe who are willing to handle complex claims against banks and who have the required level of knowledge and experience to do so. She is also Acting Deputy Chair of the Independent Monitoring Panel of the Chartered Bankers Professional Standards Board, is a member of the Westminster All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking's Professional Advisory Panel, was a Committee member of the House of Commons Parliamentary Inquiry into Financial Disputes, and in the summer of 2018 was asked to provide expert testimony to the Treasury Select Committee on financial disputes. In addition to her work in financial claims, Cat is a qualified mediator, and mediates regularly for her clients. She also has an established expertise in professional negligence claims, advising clients with claims against a range of former professional advisers including solicitors, surveyors, financial advisors and financial institutions. Many of Cat’s cases are “David and Goliath” battles, but those she acts for are quick to say that she is “someone who knows how to throw a stone or two”. She is renowned for taking ownership of the problem as if it were her own, demonstrating real approachability and empathy, and is praised by her clients for going the extra mile to do the very best she can for them.