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  • Admitted to ICAEW: 1979
  • Joined Council: 2013
  • Election Constituency: London

Biography

Kathryn is a Managing Director at AlixPartners. She has specialised in forensic accounting and dispute consulting services for the last 25 years and has more than 40 years’ experience in the accounting profession. She is one of the UK’s most senior and experienced accounting experts and has extensive experience of both litigation and arbitration.

Kathryn carries out financial and regulatory investigations and provides expert witness and dispute resolution services in arbitration and litigation, including early assessment and advice, ongoing support, reporting and testifying before courts and tribunals. She also advises in alternative dispute resolution including mediation and expert determination and is regularly appointed as an independent determiner.

Kathryn is engaged in disputes concerning financial accounting and auditing issues as well as quantum and damages calculations. Throughout her career she has worked across a very wide range of industries and sectors including professional services, financial services, natural resources, telecommunications, IT, hospitality, wholesale, retail, pharmaceutical, construction, shipping, logistics, airlines, travel and transport, as well as the public sector and regulators. She has extensive experience in high-profile and international cases involving accounting and auditing issues or complex calculations of loss and damages.

Kathryn has written hundreds of accounting and quantum reports and has testified on many occasions. She is particularly known for her keen analytical mind, her professionalism and her ability to adapt to clients’ needs. Her extensive knowledge and wealth of experience enable her to provide robust testimony before courts and tribunals and to assist with successful and significant settlements outside the courts. She has worked with law firms in the United Kingdom and across Europe, in the Far East and in the United States, on cases involving entities in the UK and Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, India, Africa, the United States and South America.

Kathryn’s experience includes disputes arising from M&A transactions, joint ventures and shareholder disputes, completion accounts disputes, claims for breach of warranty, misrepresentation, breach of contract and loss of profit, competition matters, fraudulent accounting, regulatory investigations, professional malpractice and negligence and insurance claims.

With an honours degree in mathematics, Kathryn trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with a predecessor of PwC, qualifying in 1979. In 1990 she joined BDO, where she became partner in 1995. She was an audit partner (until 2005) and a forensic partner, eventually becoming BDO’s  UK National Head of Forensic Accounting. She joined KPMG in 2010 where she was Chair of KPMG Forensic in the UK until 2016. She is a regular speaker at events for lawyers including members of Arbitral Women and in-house lawyers as well as lawyers involved in all forms of dispute resolution.

Kathryn is a member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), immediate past Chair of the ICAEW’s Audit Committee, past Chair of ICAEW’s forensic and expert witness special interest group and past Vice-Chair of ICAEW's Commercial Board.

Kathryn became a Fellow of the ICAEW in 1989 and a Fellow of the Academy of Experts in 2006. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner, has trained as a mediator with CEDR, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Kathrynis also a member of the board of the London Chamber of Arbitration.

Declaration of Interests

Membership of, or interests in, formal bodies or groups, including other professional bodies

  • Fellow and past Vice-Chair, The Academy of Experts
  • Member, The Expert Witness Institute
  • Member, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
  • Member, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
  • Member, Arbitral Women

Membership of ICAEW Council, ICAEW Boards and other ICAEW Committees

  • Council

Partnerships, Directorships or beneficial interests in companies

  • Board Member, London Chamber of Arbitration

Professional or social relationships with individuals who have business relationships or who compete with ICAEW

None

Any other matters you feel should be identified

None

Kathryn Britten