Cate Barbour
Senior Counsel
Dubai
Cate Barbour joined Walkers in 2015 and is Senior Counsel in the Insolvency & Dispute Resolution Group, Dubai.
Cate has broad commercial litigation experience, including company and shareholder disputes, contractual disputes, trust disputes, and fraud claims. She regularly acts for clients based in the Middle East, and has particular experience in assisting clients in relation to freezing orders and other urgent injunctive relief.
Since 2018 she has been acting in the Emmerson litigation in the BVI Commercial Court, one of the most complex and substantial cases to have been brought in the jurisdiction in recent years. Cate has also successfully represented clients in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) Court of Appeal and most recently in the Privy Council.
Cate has also spent time in the Walkers Cayman Islands and London offices.
She has been named as a Future Leader in the WWL 2022 and 2023 guides and was featured as one of Global Restructuring Review's 40 women in restructuring in 2023. Cate is regularly recognised in Legal 500.
Since 2018 she has been acting in the Emmerson litigation in the BVI Commercial Court, one of the most complex and substantial cases to have been brought in the jurisdiction in recent years. Cate has also successfully represented clients in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) Court of Appeal and most recently in the Privy Council.
Cate has also spent time in the Walkers Cayman Islands and London offices.
She has been named as a Future Leader in the WWL 2022 and 2023 guides and was featured as one of Global Restructuring Review's 40 women in restructuring in 2023. Cate is regularly recognised in Legal 500.
"A great lawyer and an expert in the procedural law of the BVI."
Experience and recent work
Prior to joining Walkers, Cate worked in the Commercial Litigation group of Trowers & Hamlins LLP in London and the Middle East.
Qualifications
Admitted in:
- British Virgin Islands
- Cayman Islands
- England and Wales (not practising)
Education:
- MA (Hons) Social and Political Science, Cambridge University, UK
- LLB (Hons) College of Law, London, UK
Co-chair of IWIRC (Dubai) ICC Fraudnet - Cayman Islands Future Member. Cate is a member of the BVI Bar Association.
2023 Legal 500 - Rising Star (EMEA)
2023 Legal 500 - Rising Star (British Virgin Islands)
2022 WWL Commercial Litigation - Leading Individual
2022 Legal 500 - Rising Star (British Virgin Islands)
2022 WWL - Future Leader
2021 Legal 500 - Rising Star (British Virgin Islands)
Team Members
