The Legal 500

The firm: Covington & Burling LLP is a leading international law firm of over 800 lawyers with offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington DC. The London office, opened in 1988, is active in a range of international transactions and contentious, regulatory and policy matters. Clients come from the life sciences, branded/consumer goods, technology and media, financial services, energy and other industries.

Types of work undertaken: Anti-bribery and compliance: the firm has considerable experience advising major multinational corporations on compliance, internal investigations and fraud matters, in particular in relation to UK and US anti-corruption laws.

Corporate: the firm’s London-based corporate lawyers are recognised for their expertise in M&A, private equity funds, capital markets, finance, financial services regulation, venture capital and private equity, and joint ventures and other strategic alliances. They act for major public and private companies, investment and commercial banks, private equity firms, investment managers and funds, emerging companies, and other entities and individuals on matters valued up to several billion pounds. The London team includes UK and US qualified lawyers. Most of the transactions on which the group advises are international in nature, involving in particular Europe, the US, India, the Middle East and various emerging markets.

Dispute resolution: the London dispute resolution practice represents clients before all of the major international arbitral tribunals and the English courts. Lawyers handle a broad range of disputes, including disputes involving complex corporate transactions and commercial contracts, product liability for pharmaceutical and manufacturing clients, wrongful denials of insurance coverage, and IP. The team includes lawyers who focus on international treaty arbitrations.

Employment: Covington’s London-based European employment group advises corporate clients on strategic, day-to-day and transaction-specific employment issues in the UK and Europe. Experience includes advising on the employment and HR aspect of acquisitions, disposals, outsourcing and down-sizing transactions; employment and consultancy arrangements and agency worker contracts; IP protection and restrictive covenants and UK and international compensation and share schemes. The firm also has considerable contentious experience, including defending corporate clients in dismissal, discrimination and whistleblowing cases.

Intellectual property: Covington’s London office regularly advises multinational clients on a wide range of matters including the creation and enforcement of IP rights (including in the online environment); EU and member state policies and legislation; licensing, technology transfer and other transactions; and all aspects of the standard-setting process. The London office also advises clients on data privacy, including issues relating to information transfer across borders, data storage and processing, and mobile location privacy and works with the firm’s Washington office to provide coordinated advice on ‘safe harbour’ issues.

Life sciences: in 2011, for the seventh year running, Covington was voted the top life sciences regulatory practice (source: PLC), and is widely acknowledged to be one of the world’s top life sciences practices overall. Covington’s life sciences lawyers in London provide a full range of regulatory, transactional, licensing, IP, dispute resolution and advisory services to life sciences companies worldwide. Clients range from start-up ventures to world leaders, private equity, venture capital and corporate venture funds, and leading trade associations representing the life sciences sector.

Tax: the London tax practice covers a wide range of work, including cross-border transactions and planning and implementation of tax-efficient corporate and operational structures.

Other offices: Beijing, Brussels, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Washington DC

Number of UK partners 22
Number of other UK fee-earners 53