Katie Shepherd

Experience

Katie is a Legal Director in the litigation team. She has over 17 years specialising in commercial dispute resolution for clients in the health and social care, emergency services, housing and charity sectors.

Katie has particular expertise in disputes involving large outsourcing contracts with private providers and regularly advises on underperforming contractors, including advising on issues of a critical and urgent nature where the continuity of the service might be in jeopardy.

With the rise of abuse against staff in the public sector, especially within the NHS and in social care, Katie routinely assists clients with dealing with harassment, defamation and the misuse of personal information. Her team also specialises in reputation management including the use of and publications on social media and dealing with the press. Katie provides training for her clients on defamation and reputation management in the digital age and is the firm’s specialist in handling problematic online material.  The widescale adoption of AI by the general public has also led to an increasing number of Litigants in Person pursuing legal proceedings against her clients relying on AI.  Katie leads a team of specialist lawyers who specialise in handling these types of cases.

Katie also works closely with the Employment Department on employment related civil litigation.

The protection of public funds is of utmost importance to her public sector clients.  Katie and her team carry out a variety of debt recovery work, from running large-scale debt recovery services to ad hoc assistance.

Notable projects

• Defending a claim brought against a large NHS organisation in respect of an alleged breach of contract for IT services alleged to have arisen either orally or by implication and was subject to an implied obligation of good faith.
• Acting for a major public sector client on a multi-million pound dispute with an underperforming private provider providing essential clinical services across the UK.
• Obtaining a number of anti-harassment injunctions which, for the first time, protected all client staff against further harassment and abuse from an ex-service user.
• Representing an emergency services client in defending defamation proceedings brought by an individual over statements made in the press about a police investigation into their conduct.
• Acting for a number of NHS clients against a medical devices manufacturer who provided faulty ventilators, ensuring the rapid replacement of the machines and compensation.
• Acting for a number of NHS clients successfully defending claims brought by a software licencing company for alleged overuse and misuse of the software.
• Advising an NHS organisation on the recovery of damages arising from the faulty installation of a large-scale car parking system.
• Acting for a medical technology client in ensuring inaccurate articles and images were within 24 hours taken down from major online news outlets and social media.

Qualifications

• BSc (Joint Hons) Zoology & Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 2004
• Graduate Diploma in Law, 2006
• Legal Practice Course, 2007