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After graduating from Bristol University with LLB Hons, Kathryn joined CMS where she qualified as a commercial planning lawyer. She advised many of the biggest names in real estate and negotiated complex development agreements. From very early on in her career, she was involved in pitching to clients (in both the private and public sector) and negotiating fees, with great success.
A decade later she moved to Anglo-American firm, Hogan Lovells, where a significant part of her role involved training clients and lawyers on legal and commercial issues, including winning work and tackling tenders.
She continued her professional training and advisory role at Ashurst LLP before leaving to join Hartley-Brewer Negotiation Consultants.
As an engaging presenter, she was invited to speak on mainstream media and at industry conferences. Regularly quoted in the real estate and legal press, she is known for getting to the point quickly and clearly.
When not running courses, Kathryn enjoys running, travel and the performing arts.
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The Monkey is one of the vivid images we use in our training to make a key concept memorable. This image in particular has become a totem for our firm: a toy monkey attends every course, and the BBC made a documentary about us titled The Monkey Man.
A “monkey on your back” is a problem you have – in negotiation terms, that makes you want a deal even on bad terms. E.g. you’re under time pressure / you don’t have any other offers / you think the quality of the other offers is poor.
Monkeys lead most negotiators to underestimate their own relative power and so negotiate too ‘chicken’. And there is a structural reason for this error. – When you look at your own situation you are only too aware of your own monkeys. But the other party may not be aware of these factors.• At the same time, the other guy has problems too – and he isn’t going to tell you about the monkeys on his back as this would only weaken his position. • So you have a distorted view of the power balance. It’s distorted because you have taken account of all your monkeys, but have not allowed for the monkeys he almost certainly has on his back – because you don’t know about those. And the distortion is always in the same direction: it always leads you to underestimate your own power.
