Anderson Strathern partner  Catriona Watt has been elected Chair of the 1,000 strong UK Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers (ARDL).

Catriona is the first woman, first solicitor and first Scot to lead the organisation.  Catriona has been a member of ARDL since 2005, was elected onto the ARDL committee in 2012 and was elected Chair in May 2015 following the AGM.  Her first duty as Chair was to address an audience of around 500 lawyers, regulators, QCs and judges at the organisation’s prestigious annual dinner at The  Savoy hotel in London.  The ARDL annual dinner at the Savoy is the highlight of the regulatory social calendar.  It is attended by around 500 members and guests.

The previous speakers have included the former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer and this year the speaker was Sir Alan Moses, former Lord Justice Moses who presided over the Soham murder trial. He is now the head of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, IPSO. ARDL was established in 2002 to bring together lawyers from all over the UK working in the fledgling field of professional regulation. Since then, the number of regulators and the number of complaints about professionals from the public has dramatically increased.

Catriona leads the professional regulation group at Anderson Strathern where they act for the General Medical Council, General Dental Council, General Pharmaceutical Council, Architects Registration Board, General Teaching Council for Scotland, the Scottish Social Services Council, the Royal College of Nursing and the Institute of Chartered Accountants for Scotland, among others.   Catriona also sits on the Law Society of Scotland’s Appeals and Regulatory Sub-committee and is the partner at Anderson Strathern with responsibility for marketing and business development.

Following her appointment, Catriona said: “It is a genuine honour to have been elected to this position. I aim to serve the membership of the whole of the UK and to bring the knowledge and expertise which ARDL has to the widest possible audience.”