Three lawyers at Walkers in the British Virgin Islands were acknowledged for their diligence and exceptional performance in the firm's end-of-year promotion announcements: Colleen Farrington and Cate Barbour have both been promoted to senior counsel in the firm's Insolvency & Dispute Resolution Group, and Lauren Williamson has been promoted to senior associate in the Finance & Corporate Group.
Colleen Farrington, Senior Counsel, Insolvency & Dispute Resolution
Colleen Farrington originally joined Walkers' BVI office as an associate in 2015; she was first promoted to senior associate in 2018 before her current senior counsel position. Her practice includes commercial litigation and insolvency litigation. She advises office holders in complex cross-border proceedings, high net worth individuals, high street banks, companies, corporate service providers, creditors and liquidators. Colleen's matters have included substantial hearings in the BVI Commercial Court as well as appeals in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ("ECSC") in the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council. For the past few years, she has acted in the Emmerson litigation in the BVI Commercial Court, which is one of the most substantial and complex cases to have been brought in the jurisdiction in recent years.
Colleen is a member of the BVI Bar Association and the BVI Recovery and Insolvency Specialists Association. She has also recently been appointed to the Legal Profession’s Disciplinary Tribunal.
Cate Barbour, Senior Counsel, Insolvency & Dispute Resolution
Cate Barbour also joined Walkers as an associate in 2015; she too first saw a senior associate promotion in 2018 before her current senior counsel position. Cate has broad commercial litigation experience, including company and shareholder disputes, contractual disputes, trust disputes and fraud claims. She has been acting alongside Colleen in the Emmerson litigation case in the BVI Commercial Court. She has also successfully represented clients in the ECSC Court of Appeal and most recently in the Privy Council.
Throughout her Walkers career, Cate has taken advantage of several opportunities to grow professionally through the firm's international secondment programme. She has done stints in both the Walkers London and Cayman Islands offices, and is currently on a rotation in the firm's Dubai office.
Lauren Williamson, Senior Associate, Finance & Corporate
Lauren Williamson originally joined Walkers' BVI office as an associate in 2018 after working in the corporate team at another leading offshore firm on the island. She is particularly experienced in banking and finance transactions, corporate restructurings and mergers and acquisitions. One of the most prominent matters Lauren has been involved in was the 2019 acquisition of SOL Investments Limited and its subsidiaries – the largest independent fuel marketer in the Caribbean – by Parkland Fuel Corporation, a deal which had an estimated value of US$1.21 billion plus customary post-closing adjustments on a cash-free and debt-free basis.
Speaking to the recent promotions, Walkers BVI Managing Partner Matthew Cowman shared: "Colleen, Cate and Lauren are brilliant at what they do and have shown an outstanding level of professional growth in the last year. It's been an honour to watch them progress in their careers with the firm from young, eager associates to the leading women they are today."
