Katie joined Tottenham Hotspur Football Club as its Head of Legal in March 2021, and was promoted to the Club’s newly formed Senior Leadership Team and to Director of Legal in July 2022. Prior to that, Katie worked in private practice, training at Halliwells and Gateley (including a 10-month secondment to Manchester City during their first Premier League title-winning season), before moving to Walker Morris to develop their Sports practice. During her time at Walker Morris, Katie worked alongside David Hinchliffe to ensure that the firm went from acting for one Premier League club, to several English Football League clubs and half of all Premier League clubs (including Spurs, who asked her to come in-house).
Katie has previously sat on the board of the English Football Leage (EFL) Trust for a full term of 5 years from 2015-2020. The EFL Trust Board includes the CEO of the EFL and stakeholders from the PFA, Premier League, FA and EFL, as well as CEOs of various EFL Clubs. Katie advised the board on regulatory, compliance and legal matters as they arose.
Katie has proudly sat on the Board of Support Dogs for almost a decade, a national charity which trains dogs (including pet and rescue dogs) to become Epilepsy Seizure Alert Dogs, Autism Assistance Dogs and Disability Assistance Dogs.
In Katie’s role as Director of Legal at Tottenham Hotspur, she oversees all of the Club’s Legal, Risk, Compliance, Data Protection and Brand Protection matters, managing a team of seven people across those areas (plus an additional 3-4 secondees). Katie is very proud of the team that she has implemented at Spurs, having brought Luke Clarke across from an entirely different part of the business to become the Club’s first Trainee Solicitor (qualifying at the Club in June 2023) and having brought both Aaron Dixon and Jennifer Sutcliffe with her from Walker Morris. She has now worked with Luke, Aaron and Jennifer for a combined total of 22 years, such is the tight-knit team at Spurs.
Some of Katie’s duties include advising the Club’s Board, Senior Leadership Team and Heads of Department on day-to-day and key strategic matters, ownership/Board-level matters, acting as a key stakeholder on (for example) all matters pertaining to ESG, Safeguarding and Insurance and managing, negotiating and advising on commercial agreements across the business including agreements with key strategic partners such as NFL and F1.
