Experience

Catherine is a very experienced litigator who advises public and private sector clients in contentious matters, with her practice covering a broad range of complex commercial and regulatory disputes. Her work is often multi-jurisdictional in nature and she works closely with international lawyers.  Catherine has particular expertise in the banking and financial services, insurance, communications, health, energy and aviation sectors.  She also has considerable experience of contentious competition matters.

Catherine advises corporates, financial institutions and insurers in connection with a wide range of commercial disputes, shareholder disputes, as well as disputes with customers and intermediaries. She has extensive experience of handling complex professional negligence claims in several fields, retained by both professionals and their insurers.

Catherine also acts for a number of regulators advising on statutory duties, decision making processes, statutory appeals, judicial reviews and enforcement action.

Catherine also advises entities who are the subject of regulatory action and those carrying out internal investigations, ranging from in-house company investigations concerning business ethics to regulatory enforcement investigations in relation to suspected illegal activity. Catherine also advises on dawn raids in a variety of sectors.

Catherine is a Founding Member and Secretary to the Irish Chapter of the Women’s White Collar Defence Association (WWCDA).

 

Key highlights include advising:

  • Financial institutions in a range of disputes with customers and intermediaries, to include acting in the defence of a variety of Commercial Court claims concerning the sale of investment products and/or the management of investment funds.
  • Corporates and shareholders in a wide range of specific performance and breach of contract claims arising from shareholders agreements, share purchase agreements and other contracts.
  • Commission for Communications Regulation in a variety of mandates, to include in Commercial Court matters both by way of defence and in the bringing of enforcement action.
  • Commission for the Regulation of Utilities on a broad range of contentious matters and in the defence of Commercial Court litigation.
  • Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority on a range of matters including the defence of judicial review proceedings involving complex matters of European Union law and the Common Fisheries Policy.
  • DAF Trucks in follow-on damages claims for breach of competition law brought in the Irish courts following a finding of infringement by the European Commission.
  • Voluntary Health Insurance Board in a broad range of regulatory and contentious matters, to include acting in the defence of proceedings entered into the Competition List involving claims of abuse of dominance.