Masters of the Bench

Born in Mumbai, India, Aarif Barma grew up in Hong Kong, where he attended Diocesan Boys' School. He then read law at Exeter College, Oxford obtaining a BA in 1981 and a BCL in 1982. He was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1983, and to the Hong Kong Bar later the same year. After doing most of his pupillage in London, he returned to 
Hong Kong to complete his pupillage and commenced practice there at the end of 1984, developing a commercial and company law practice, with a focus on corporate 
insolvency, restructurings and professional negligence claims. In 2002, he was appointed Senior Counsel. He was appointed a Judge of the Court of First Instance in September 
2003 and dealt mostly with company, insolvency, commercial and tax cases. He became a Justice of Appeal in November 2012, since when he has been dealing with a much more varied range of matters, covering most areas of civil litigation.