David F.W. Cohen
David Cohen is the national leader of Gowling WLG's Financial Institutions & Services Group in Canada, and a senior practitioner in the firm's Toronto office. He practises in the areas of corporate and commercial financing and restructuring and insolvency law, in both a domestic and cross-border context. David also coordinates the firm's national Distressed M&A practice.
David has transactional experience in the following sectors:
- Automotive
- Agriculture
- Aquaculture
- Aviation
- Bottling
- Construction
- Financial services
- Food and beverage
- Health care
- Hospitality
- Housing
- Media
- Mining, Oil and Gas and Natural Resources
- Plastics
- Recreational products
- Retail
- Shipping and logistics
- Telecom
For the past seven years, David has been consistently recognized as a leader in the area of Restructuring/Insolvency - Canada in Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business and Chambers Canada. He has also been listed by Lexpert as a leading lawyer in mining (2017/18/19) and debt financing and banking. David’s recent matters including the restructuring of a large agricultural product manufacturer and producer, the liquidation and/or restructuring of a number of large domestic Canadian retail chains, and restructurings of mining businesses and oil and gas producers.
David is the both a past global chair (2017) and past global president (2016) of the Turnaround Management Association (TMA), and served as a member of its Executive Board of Directors and Board of Trustees (2009-2018). He co-chaired the highly successful TMA Annual Convention held in Toronto in October 2014. He has also served as TMA Global's corporate secretary, as a member of its executive operating committee, and as its VP of membership. His other past roles include serving as a member of the Futures Task Force, the Sponsorship Task Force and the Nominations Committee.
Prior to joining TMA's International Board, he served for six years as a director of the TMA (Toronto Chapter) Board in a number of executive positions, including vice president, secretary and co-chair of the Programs Committee.
David was the chair of the Canadian Bar Association's National Bankruptcy and Insolvency Section Executive for a two-year term ending in September 2004. Before that, he was the Ontario representative of the section from 1998-2002.
David is a member of the CCH Corporate Law Advisory Board and was a visiting instructor in Bankruptcy Law at Osgoode Hall Law School for five years, up to 2001.