Wotton Kearney has appointed Cath Evans as its first Chief Operating Officer. Cath joined the firm on 27 September as a key member of the firm’s Management Committee and Executive Team which is led by Chief Executive Partner, David Kearney.

Cath, who is a lawyer herself, has extensive law firm executive experience. Most recently she was the Chief Operating Officer for the Shine Group of companies across Australia and New Zealand. Before that, Cath held other executive positions including Chief Executive Officer at Shine Lawyers, and CEO of Slater and Gordon (UK) and COO in Australia.

Her leadership experience is enhanced by roles as a Non-Executive Director at Colac Area Health and Western Victoria Primary Health Network, and as Chair of Wayss, a not-for-profit organisation tackling homelessness and family violence in Melbourne.

“We are absolutely delighted that Cath is joining our leadership team,” said David Kearney. “Her experience, skills and style are a great fit for Wotton Kearney as we pursue an accelerated growth strategy in our chosen sector of the legal services market and continue to invest in our People First culture. I’m looking forward to working closely with her as we implement our ‘Towards 2025’ strategy to accelerate growth in a way which further enhances our clients’ experiences and continues to improve our operational and financial performance.”

The decision to join Wotton Kearney was an easy one for Cath. “W+K is a firm deeply committed to the delivery of high quality legal services, creation of an environment for its people to excel, and is progressive in its outlook – I see this as a great opportunity to work with a group of highly motivated industry leaders”, said Cath.

David added: “Over the past five years, Wotton Kearney has grown firm revenue by 130% and partner numbers by 190%. Today, we are a very different legal business having moved to an incorporated model in 2019 with a view to allowing our firm to invest in technological and other changes required to become a better business partner to our clients, and to grow our expertise to further assist our clients’ claims needs. Cath has significant learnings around how to execute on sustainable and profitable growth in a way where our focus remains on our people and our key business partners – our insurer clients.”

Cath’s appointment further enhances the diversity of W+K’s Executive Team.