Katharine Mortimer

Partner

Katharine’s experience as a corporate partner is wide reaching and she has particular expertise in advising on all aspects of employee share option schemes. She has considerable experience in working on behalf of the care sector, including medical and dental practices and care home owners.

"Practicing corporate law is sometimes like detective work. A client comes to you with an instruction which they might think is straightforward, but the trick is seeing what lies behind that so I have to de-code and interpret that instruction to really understand what they want to achieve. Once that’s clear I can see how that would work in a legal framework to best add value to their business.”

Katharine is independently recognized and recommended by the Legal 500 UK guide and her clients refer to her "expertise and knowledge of aspects such as bank policy" and “superb negotiation skills”. She and the Withy King corporate team were declared ‘more proactive and better networked’ than many competitors by Legal 500 UK 2011.

Her extensive work on share option arrangements means that she has built up strong relationships with a selective group of accountants who share a similar level of expertise. Together they have an established record of advising clients on employee incentives in the most tax efficient way.

Katharine’s sector experience includes advising clients within the healthcare sector, particularly care home owners and medical and dental practices and partnerships. She recognizes that working within the healthcare sector means looking beyond the purely commercial view. “Working with healthcare clients is not purely about commerce. The human element really comes into play. It’s refreshing working with people whose business decisions are driven by more than just the bottom line.”

Katharine’s experience encompasses all areas of general company and corporate law work including;

• company sales and purchases
• management buy outs (MBOs)
• company restructuring, including advising on articles of association and shareholder agreements and
• share option arrangements.

Katharine trained at Allen & Overy where she qualified in 1992. She was an associate in its corporate team for eight years before joining Withy King in 1998. She became a partner in 2005.