Katherine Coates was a pupil at King Edward VI High School for Girls from 1970 to 1977 and went on to study Jurisprudence at Somerville College, Oxford. She joined Clifford Chance LLP in 1981 where she has spent her entire legal career, becoming a partner in 1990, head of the financial institutions practice in London and of the global insurance practice. She also sat on the firm’s Partnership Council for several years and chaired its audit and risk committee. She advised on a wide range of transactional, regulatory and governance matters for insurers and other financial institutions.

Following her retirement from the partnership in 2021, she remains as a consultant to the firm and has established a portfolio of non-executive director roles. These include chair of risk at Talbot Underwriting Limited, part of the AIG group, chair of risk at Great Lakes Insurance UK Limited, part of the Munich Re group, non-executive director at Phoenix Re Bermuda and non-executive director at UK Endorsement Board (a government arm’s length body responsible for endorsing IFRS for use in the UK). Katherine is also a member of the Council at Imperial College London and sits on its audit and risk committee. She mentors a number of senior employees in commercial and not-for-profit organisations.

She is married to Andrew, a professor in space physics at UCL, and has twin daughters.