Cate Sumner

Cate Sumner is Director of Law and Development Partners and a Senior Adviser with the ASEAN Australia Counter Trafficking program (ASEAN-ACT) and the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Justice 2 (AIPJ2).

For 25 years, Cate has worked in the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, focusing on access to justice, human rights and judicial reform. Her career spans working with the international law firm Baker & McKenzie in Cairo, the United Nations (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, and the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) in their offices in Manila and Sydney. 

In 2019, Cate was awarded a Churchill Trust Fellowship to explore how private finance, philanthropic donors and government can collaborate to provide free legal services for women and children.