Leaders List interview: 60 seconds with Catherine Naylor, Gowling WLG

Date: 04 Oct 2023

Citywealth

This week’s 60-second piece is dedicated to Catherine Naylor, Partner at Gowling WLG. Written by Written by Barbara Brudenell-Bruce

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

I’m a disputes partner in a busy team. I help clients to resolve the full range of international and domestic disputes with a particular focus on the financial services sector. Alongside corporate/commercial disputes, I head up our trusts litigation, fraud / asset tracing and contentious insolvency team and lead the firm’s Channel Islands desk.

What does a typical day look like for you?

There is no such thing as a typical day, especially since we are all working more flexibly. But a day in the office will usually include lots of face to face interactions (formal meetings or just team catch ups), emails, Zoom and telephone calls and, ideally, some actual work. I travel a lot – on cases and for business development – and I do a fair bit of networking, too, so I am often out in the evenings.

Tell us about some recent, interesting client instructions.

I love the variety of client work that I’m privileged to do, for institutional and private clients and for corporates. Some of the most interesting client instructions I’ve worked on have come from referrals where the mandate appeared quite limited at the outset but then, after getting into the facts and winning the client’s trust, we’ve ended up running a huge, multi-faceted case over several years.

What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping your clients to overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges clients face when embroiled in a dispute is to maintain commercial perspective. Litigation can be very personal and feel very emotional and it’s my job to try to manage that sensitively and to consider with my clients at every stage what a successful outcome actually looks like. Don’t get me wrong, I love taking cases to trial, but that is not always the best way to achieve what the client actually wants.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

I always like winning for clients, especially in cases where my team has worked incredibly hard over a sustained period but my proudest moment was actually after settling a long-running case and my client, genuinely, said that she would be “bereft” at not needing to spend her days on the phone to and emailing me. I felt the same but it was a fantastic outcome all the same.

What do you consider to be the most important attributes for a leader?

Resilience, empathy and excellent communication.

Who do you most admire and why?

Betty Ford. She was a life-long advocate for women’s rights, a dedicated and honest campaigner on matters of public health and she spoke openly on subjects about which she cared at a time when such candour was (and still is…) rare.

Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?

Guernsey. It was officially work but it was also a pleasure to catch up with contacts there.

If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?

I used to work in press and communications before qualifying as a lawyer – but in another life I’d have liked to have been an engineer (assuming that I could get by without being particularly practical or good at maths).

How do you relax after a long day?

Once my son is in bed, with a glass of wine and a book or some rubbish TV.

You can view Catherine’s profile on the Leaders List here.