Jason Coates

UK pensions

Jason Coates is a leading UK pensions lawyer with over 20 years' experience as a partner. He helps his clients to respond to the challenges and opportunities they face in operating their pension arrangements, commercially and without jargon.

A London-based Gowling WLG partner, Jason works closely with his clients and their other advisers to develop innovative solutions. He is well-known for building very strong relationships, which enable him to provide advice in context and assist clients in meeting their specific objectives.

His clients include trustees of UK-based pension schemes, whether defined benefit, defined contribution or hybrid schemes, corporates in all sectors with defined benefit pension schemes, companies in all sectors who need help establishing and running retirement arrangements, and other law firms who need high quality UK pensions advice for their clients on complex deals.

Jason has a great deal of experience assisting non-UK based clients from across the world (recently including French, Japanese and US companies for example) with their UK pension issues.

Jason leads the team's ESG Working Group, which helps clients manage the legal aspects of the risks and opportunities relating to sustainability.

Co-head of Italy Desk

Jason is also the firm's Co-head of Italy Desk, a role he holds jointly with Rosa Lupo in Canada. In this role, he is responsible for Gowling WLG's relationships with Italian law firms and Italian corporate clients across the globe.

Leading a team of lawyers across the firm's offices, including a number of Italian speakers, Jason co-ordinates our work with Italy. His aim is for us to be one of the preferred international law firms for Italian corporate clients doing work outside of Italy. Jason is also the focus for the firm's outward referrals to Italian law firms in order to get support for Gowling WLG clients doing business in Italy.