BTP Federation has bid farewell to Catherine Ridley, who has retired from her role as the Federation's in-house solicitor. Over two decades of service, Catherine has supported and advised officers in a wide range of circumstances from injury and ill-health to workplace grievances.
We are very sorry to lose Catherine, but we know she is looking forward to spending more time on the tennis court and with her family, including her three grandchildren who have arrived in the past four years.
Before Catherine left West Dulwich for the last time, we asked her to reflect on her long career with the Federation.
"I am proud to have worked either for or with the Federation for over 20 years and have very much enjoyed my career," she said. "The job is really like no other. The work is varied and no two days are the same.
"It is very unusual these days for a solicitor to do more than one area of work, but I loved the variety of cases that I dealt with - from the less serious injuries sustained in work-related accidents to the most serious career-ending injuries where officers were devastated at losing their careers."
Another area of Catherine's expertise was advising on workplace grievances.
"Often there was little I could do for the officer, they just needed to be listened to and feel that somebody was on their side", she explained. "This is very time consuming but working in-house means that you have the luxury of time to do that. Not every hour has to be spent doing fee earning work.
"Over my career I have dealt with cases of sex and race discrimination. In current times disability discrimination appears to be a major issue for the Force. Vetting is understandably a hot topic now and this is yet another area of law to embrace."
Catherine said the role of Federation in-house solicitor can be quite lonely and described how 'the buck definitely stops with you' but remarked on the 'magnificent support' she has had from every Chair, General Secretary and Treasurer that she has worked with.
"I have also had irreplaceable assistance from Jill [O'Keefe], who has been my secretarial support and assistant at Dulwich the whole time I have been there. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude because I definitely couldn't have done it without her. She's put up with an awful lot over the past 20 years!
"As my time with the Federation comes to an end and I look back over the past two decades, it's amazing to see the transformation in the Federation over that time. It is now a much better-oiled machine with a high degree of transparency and accountability but with a high level of service for members. The Executive and everyone at Dulwich works very hard to achieve that.
"I will miss the friendships that I have made but most definitely not the 24/7 emails!"
During her final month in post Catherine was shadowed by the Federation's new in-house solicitor, Runa Hakim. We will introduce Runa shortly but, in the meantime, we thank Catherine for her long and loyal service and wish her an equally long and happy retirement.
Farewell to Federation Solicitor, Catherine Ridley
