Catherine is an Associate in our sports law team and leads our focuses on rugby and women in sport.
She handles contentious and non-contentious regulatory, safeguarding, athlete eligibility, anti-doping and general commercial litigation matters for a wide range of clients, including national governing bodies, football clubs, athletes, footballers and agents.
Catherine has significant experience in advising national governing bodies and football clubs in relation to their regulatory frameworks and associated policies and procedures.
Also experienced in advising clients on sport-related dispute resolution — including regulatory and contractual disputes — Catherine represents many clients in RFL Operational Rules Tribunals, FA Safeguarding Disciplinary Hearings, FA Rule K and English Football League (EFL) arbitration proceedings.
Prior to joining Brabners in 2018, Catherine completed a six-month secondment with The FA, during which she dealt with a number of regulatory disputes and commercial matters. These included working on the bid for the 2022 UEFA Women’s Euros.
Catherine was named as a ‘key lawyer’ in sport by The Legal 500 both in the North West and London 2023 and 2024 rankings and was nominated as a ‘rising star’ within the Technology Media and Telecoms (TMT) category of The Legal 500 Northern Powerhouse Awards 2023.
A qualified UK Anti-doping (‘UKAD’) Accredited Advisor, Catherine is a member of the EFL’s newly formed Together Advisory Panel, which will guide the work of the EFL on issues relating to equality, diversity and inclusion.
She is an Independent Judicial Panel Member for the British Basketball Federation (BBF) and the Legal Representative and Chair on a number of national governing body eligibility and inclusion panels that deal specifically with the inclusion of transgender athletes in sport. Catherine has also worked for the British Association for Sport and Law (BASL) as its Executive Co-ordinator since 2014 and is a Trustee of the National Football Museum.
Catherine is based in our Manchester office.
