Covington & Burling

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Covington & Burling LLP

Headquarters	One CityCenter 850 Tenth Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20001, United States
No. of offices	13 total (8 international)
No. of attorneys	1,112 (2020)[1]
Major practice areas	General practice
Date founded	1919; 102 years ago (1919)
Founder	J. Harry Covington and Edward B. Burling
Company type	Limited liability partnership
Website	www.cov.com

Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the firm advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters.^[2] In 2021, Vault.com ranked Covington & Burling as the #1 law firm in Washington, D.C.^[3] The firm has additional offices in Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Dubai, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Seoul, and Shanghai.

History[]

Judge J. Harry Covington and Edward B. Burling founded Covington & Burling in Washington, DC, on January 1, 1919.^[4][5][6]

In 1988, Covington opened a London office, followed by a Brussels office in 1990. In 1999, Covington merged with a 60-lawyer New York firm called Howard, Smith & Levin and also opened its first West Coast office in San Francisco.^[7] In 2008, Covington entered into a strategic alliance with Institution Quraysh for Law & Policy (iQ), a Qatar-based transnational law firm and think-tank, for the joint provision of legal and consulting services in the Middle East.^[8] As of mid-2009, both firms share the same London office premises.^{[citation needed]}

Pro bono[]

Covington's pro bono work focuses on providing legal services to people in local communities. Attorneys at the firm can participate in a six-month rotation program and work at each of three DC-based legal service organizations: Neighborhood Legal Services Program, the Children's Law Center and Bread for the City.

Covington's pro bono work includes representation in Buckley v. Valeo, Griffin v. Illinois,^[9] and Korematsu v. United States. However, the firm's pro bono program encompasses a range of areas, including freedom of expression and religion; civil rights and civil liberties; gay rights; family law; education; landlord/tenant; homelessness; employment; criminal and court-appointed cases; police misconduct; environmental law; fairness in government procurements and grants; intellectual property; non-profit incorporation and tax. They supported the District of Columbia in District of Columbia v. Heller which argues that the District's ban on the possession of handguns and its storage provisions for other firearms in the home is not implicated by the Second Amendment^[10]

Representation of Guantanamo Bay inmates[]

Attorneys at Covington & Burling have been Guantanamo Bay attorneys for Ahmed al-Ghailani^[11] fifteen Yemenis, one Pakistani, and one Algerian being held at Guantanamo Bay. The firm obtained favorable rulings that detainees have rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Geneva Conventions.^[12] The court ruled in March 2005 that the government could not transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to foreign custody without first giving the prisoners a chance to challenge the move in court.

According to The American Lawyer's annual pro bono survey, Covington lawyers spent 3,022 hours on Guantánamo litigation in 2007, "the firm's largest pro bono project that year". Lawyers from the firm who have become administration officials have been advised by ethics officials to recuse themselves in matters involving detainees represented by their former firms, but not from policy issues where they were not personally and substantially involved. Lanny Breuer is one of those who has had to recuse from some matters since leaving the firm for a government position. Covington also co-authored one of three petitioners' briefs filed in Boumediene v. Bush, "and was responsible for several detainee victories" in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. "At least one high-ranking appointee played a key role in advancing detainees' rights," but they did not participate in litigation over the Guantanamo Bay prison itself.^[13]

Pro bono accolades[]

• First in Pro Bono Hours per Lawyer, 2019 and 2020—The American Lawyer^[14]
• Law360, Pro Bono Firm of the Year, ranked No. 1 (2015).^[15]
• DC Bar Association, Thurgood Marshall Award for commitment to excellence in the fields of civil rights and individual liberties (2006).^[16]

Recent notable clients[]

State of California[]

The State of California hired Covington & Burling attorney and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder to fight the Trump administration.^[17][18]

Commonwealth of Australia[]

According to press reports and filings with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Covington & Burling assisted the government of Australia in pursuing the legislation to create a new visa category reserved exclusively for nationals of Australia following the enactment of the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement.^[19] The Covington team included Stuart Eizenstat, Martin Gold, Roderick DeArment, David Marchick, Elizabeth Letchworth, Les Carnegie, and Brian Smith.^[19] On November 20, 2012, the LegalTimes reported that the Embassy of South Korea had hired Covington & Burling to advise on a similar visa for Korea. Covington of counsel Brian Smith and senior international policy adviser Alan Larson reportedly led the matter, assisted by senior counsel Martin Gold and associate Jonathan Wakely.^[20]

Current and former attorneys[]

References[]

External links[]

• Covington & Burling LLP Website
• National Law Review Profile