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 have included 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 both the 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.