Profile: Covington & Burling LLP

Covington & Burling LLP - Who's Who Legal '70'

What is the Who's Who Legal '70'?

The firm was the first major non-governmental tenant on the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor when it moved into its current offices in 1981, and has earned local, national and international recognition for its work, including that of Chuck Ruff; founder of the firm’s white-collar practice and President Clinton’s White House counsel during his impeachment trial.

The firm opened its first international office in 1998 in London, and this was soon followed by another in Brussels in 1990. Domestically, the firm increased its presence through a merger with 60-lawyer New York City outfit Howard Smith & Levin in 1999, and also opened its first West Coast office in San Francisco in the same year.

Covington & Burling now has more than 600 lawyers across five offices and three countries. Approximately half of these are based in DC, and it is this office that provides 16 of the 24 featured partners in the following pages. Covington & Burling is represented in 15 chapters, and can call on the services of leading individuals in some of those fields, including the top environment lawyer in the world. Theodore Garrett in the DC office has won the Who’s Who Legal Environment Lawyer of the Year award every year since its inception, and is described simply as “the dean”. He has served as counsel in more than 50 reported cases, including major compliance, regulatory and enforcement issues.

CORPORATE & FINANCIAL
The firm’s financial institutions group performs well in the research. Two partners appear in the banking chapter as leaders in that field.

Stuart Stock’s regulatory practice attracted much admiring comment, particularly for his representation of Freddie Mac, the US Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, in connection with regulatory issues and litigation arising from the company’s $5 billion earnings restatement. Senior counsel Mark Weiss joins him, and he is recognised as an “authority” on banking related regulation, M&A and antitrust issues. On the transactional side, Bruce Deming appears in the M&A chapter. He is known for his cross-border and domestic corporate and securities work, and has represented clients from the US, Canada, Europe and Asia including Wells Fargo Bank in its proprietary capital markets and investment activities. Leonard Chazen is one of two New York-based partners on our M&A list, and appears in the corporate governance chapter. Described to researchers as “extremely bright”, he advised special committees of independent directors of Adelphia Communications Corporation and Tyco International. The firm makes an appearance in the private funds chapter for the first time this year thanks to the lateral hire of Tim Clark from O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Clark co-chairs the private equity practice from the New York office and recently represented CCMP Capital in closing its latest private equity fund, a US$3.4 billion buyout/growth fund. Clark also represented the client on its related US$1 billion “synthetic secondary” fund.

Depending on the economic conditions, clients may need to call on the services of the firm’s insolvency and restructuring expertise, and Covington & Burling has a leading expert in DC – Michael St Patrick Baxter. “Fantastically talented”, Baxter is recognised for his work on behalf of debtors, creditors and official committees.

DISPUTES
Covington & Burling’s dispute resolution expertise also attracted admiring comment, and the firm fared particularly well in our commercial arbitration research. Its showing of four partners is its best in any chapter, and it has an impressive heritage in this area; one of the firm’s very first cases involved successfully representing Norway against the US in Norwegian Shipowners – an international arbitration in The Hague. Covington & Burling is the leading firm in DC for arbitration. Oscar Garibaldi is “well known and respected” for investor–state disputes, while Thomas Johnson is described as “very impressive” and was recently appointed to the US panel of arbitrators for ICSID arbitrations. Senior counsel Peter Trooboff is a “very prominent figure in this field”; Eugene Gulland has successfully represented clients in ICC, ICSID and UNCITRAL proceedings in recent years. Gulland also claims a place among the leading litigators worldwide, and was fêted for his work in litigation relating to the enforcement of arbitral awards; he successfully represented a South African telecommunications company in opposing the enforcement of ICC arbitration award, as well as the government of Qatar in resisting enforcement of an another ICC award.

Aaron Marcu is the second Covington & Burling lawyer from the New York office that we feature, and appears among the leading business crime defence lawyers in the publication. The firm is “very well known in this area due to the quality of their work”, and Marcu coordinates the firm’s white-collar defence and investigations practice group. A “very fine individual”, he has handled grand jury and SEC investigations for institutions and individuals including Pfizer, Goodyear, Adelphia, Philip Morris, Enron and Tyco.

TRADE AND INSURANCE
The firm performed particularly well in both the insurance and the trade and customs chapters, gaining three places in each. In the former, the “first-rate” Mitchell Dolin stands out in particular. His disputes work for corporate policyholders attracted many recommendations, and he is known for his expertise both in court and in arbitral proceedings, domestically and overseas. Marialuisa Gallozzi was described as “very efficient”, and is recognised for her insurance coverage and food and drug-related work, while Donald Brown is regarded as “outstanding”. Managing partner of the San Francisco office, he was deemed to be a “phenomenal coverage lawyer”, and served as lead trial lawyer for ExxonMobil in its lawsuit against more than 100 insurers relating to over $2 billion of coverage for environmental clean-up liabilities associated with approximately 5,000 sites.

Georg Berrisch is a high-profile Brussels-based practitioner and one of a strong Covington & Burling trio in the trade and customs chapter. Sources noted that Berrisch displays a “very professional approach” and recommended him for a wide range of matters, including anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, customs and export control. Rated as “very savvy” he represented the Council of the European Union in the Korean DRAMs anti-subsidy case. Harvey Applebaum, senior counsel to the DC office, also has a “substantial practice” in this area. Recognised as an expert in anti-dumping and countervailing duty matters, he is recommended for his customs knowledge. Also in DC, “everyone knows” Stuart Eizenstat, who was part of the Covington & Burling team that advised private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Texas Pacific Group on environmental, regulatory, and other governmental and public policy aspects of their acquisition of Texas power company TXU Corp for $45 billion; the largest leveraged buyout in history.
 
COMMUNICATIONS AND OTHER AREAS
The firm is also strong in the communications arena. Mark Plotkin is the owner of a “fine reputation” for electronic commerce and IT security, and managing partner of the Brussels office David Harfst joins him in the internet & e-commerce chapter. Harfst’s knowledge of EU communications law was deemed to be “second to none”. In the regulatory communications chapter, senior counsel Jonathan Blake appears among the elite practitioners in the research overall. He co-heads the firm’s technology, media and communications group, which represents clients that include the wireless communications company Qualcomm and the telecoms company TDS. He settled a four-year case, representing 54 defendants involved in the largest false claims suit ever brought, and the first of its kind to involve FCC licences. Blake also defended 64 mobile phone and other auction winners against the largest qui tam suit ever brought.

Covington & Burling appears in two further chapters. Roderick McKelvie gives the firm a presence in the patents research, and has been lead counsel in over 20 jury trials. He is a former district court judge for the District of Delaware, and in his 10-year tenure he presided over more than 200 patent infringement cases, including more than 30 trials.

The firm’s London office is now a well established player in the local market, with an ever growing profile. Lawyers from London recently advised US biotechnology company Northwest Biotherapeutics on its admission to AIM and £15 million placing, as well as the London branch of the Bank of China on the transfer of its UK retail and part of its corporate banking business to Bank of China (UK) Ltd. The office is represented in our book by Anne Ware in the product liability chapter.

She stood out for her work on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, as well as consumer cosmetic, medical and food and beverage product-related claims.