Covington Promotes 16 New Partners

Covington Promotes 16 New Partners

October 2, 2017

WASHINGTON—Covington has promoted 16 lawyers to its partnership.

“It’s a great tribute to the firm’s vibrancy that we’re continuing to build an exceptional pipeline of new partners from within our ranks,” said Timothy Hester, Covington’s chair. “We’re confident that all 16 will add importantly to the firm’s strengths and will drive further expansion of core practices.”

The new partners, who are based in London, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, and Washington, are:

John Balzano (New York): Mr. Balzano represents companies and business associations on U.S. and China regulatory and policy matters related to food, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and other regulated products. His experience includes advising clients on legal and regulatory issues related to China, particularly with regard to products regulated by the China Food and Drug Administration and other agricultural, animal, and healthcare products and services. He assists clients with developing strategies to obtain pre-market approvals for these products in China, including clinical development, understanding relevant pricing and reimbursement policies, and reviewing distribution and promotional plans. Mr. Balzano also has experience with advising on food and drug regulatory compliance and enforcement issues related to China, such as developing global and China-specific regulatory compliance procedures, and managing the regulatory aspects of food and drug "professional consumer" litigation, inspections by Chinese authorities in other countries, and government testing and other regulatory investigations. Mr. Balzano received his law degree from the Washington University School of Law, a master's degree at Washington University, and his undergraduate degree at Columbia University.

Lindsay Burke (Washington): Ms. Burke is vice chair of the firm’s Employment Practice Group and regularly advises U.S., international, and multinational employers on employee management issues and international HR compliance. Her domestic practice includes advice pertaining to discrimination, leave, whistleblower, wage and hour, trade secret, and non-competition issues arising under federal and state laws. Her international practice focuses on reviewing employee agreements and policies to ensure compliance with the laws of many jurisdictions. Ms. Burke works frequently with the firm’s Privacy, Employee Benefits, Government Contracts, White Collar, and Cybersecurity Practice Groups to ensure that all potential employment issues are addressed in matters handled by these groups. Ms. Burke received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, a master's degree from Yale University, and her undergraduate degree from Kenyon College.

Bradley Chernin (San Francisco): Mr. Chernin advises a broad range of public and private companies and entrepreneurs with respect to mergers and acquisitions, venture capital investments, strategic investments, joint ventures, licensing, and general corporate matters. His clients include internet, social networking, digital media, financial technology, software and SaaS, online gaming, life sciences, and clean technology companies. Mr. Chernin received his law degree from Stanford Law School, a master's degree at Pace University, and his undergraduate degree at The George Washington University.

Christopher DeCresce (New York): Mr. DeCresce's practice focuses on securities and capital markets, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, governance, securities law reporting, and compliance. He has significant experience representing issuers in capital market transactions, including public and private offerings, and merger and acquisitions, with a focus on clients in the financial services industry. Mr. DeCresce received his law degree from New York Law School and his undergraduate degree at City College of the City University of New York.

Guy Dingley (London): Mr. Dingley focuses on taxation and employee benefits, with a particular emphasis on corporate taxation and value added tax, the taxation of investment funds, global mobility, and the establishment of incentive arrangements. Mr. Dingley's practice encompasses corporate and business acquisitions and disposals, mergers and reconstructions together with advice on the tax aspects of supply chain management and employee remuneration. Mr. Dingley received his undergraduate degree at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge and subsequently studied law at the College of Law, York.

Matthew Dunn (Washington): Mr. Dunn's practice focuses on white collar defense and litigation, with a particular emphasis on representing healthcare companies. He has extensive experience representing companies in federal and state criminal and civil investigations by the Department of Justice, Congress, and other enforcement agencies. His complementary litigation practice focuses on defending companies in government-facing litigation, such as cases arising under the False Claims Act and state consumer fraud laws, and follow-on litigation arising from government investigations. Mr. Dunn received his law degree from Columbia Law School, his master of science degree from Troy University, and his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University.

Laura Flahive Wu (Washington): Ms. Flahive Wu is a litigator who handles an array of commercial disputes and class actions across a variety of industries, including sports, media, internet, technology, and financial services. She has significant experience representing clients in complex contractual disputes, cable carriage complaints, and securities litigation. Ms. Flahive Wu received her law degree from Columbia Law School and her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College.

Pamela Forrest (Washington): Ms. Forrest advises clients on a broad range of FDA regulatory issues. Her practice focuses on FDA medical device matters, including premarket notification, premarket approval, product recalls, Medical Device Reporting (MDR), Quality System Regulation (QSR) compliance, establishment registration and device listing, labeling and promotion, import/export issues, and clinical trial requirements. Ms. Forrest received her law degree from Stanford Law School and her undergraduate degree at Yale University.

Alexa Hansen (San Francisco): Ms. Hansen's practice focuses on patent litigation and matters before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board, with an emphasis on pharmaceutical and biological patents. In addition to her litigation work, she also provides patent analysis for product acquisitions and financial transactions. Ms. Hansen received her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.

Megan Keane (Washington): Ms. Keane is a litigator whose practice is focused on representing life sciences clients in complex and high-stakes patent litigation. She has taken a leading role in representing clients on matters from case inception through trial and appeal, which often involve sophisticated technical issues. In addition to representing clients in federal court, she represents clients in inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. She received her law degree from The George Washington University Law School and her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sam Pyun (Seoul): Mr. Pyun is an English law-qualified lawyer specializing in corporate and banking transactions, with a focus on cross-border projects, financings, and acquisitions in the energy, resources, and infrastructure sectors. He has advised clients at all levels including sponsors, vendors, purchasers, contractors, banks, and ECAs on projects and transactions in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the CIS, Africa, and the Middle East. Mr. Pyun is a graduate of  Yonsei University (Korea) and the College of Law (UK).

Kyle Rabe (New York): Mr. Rabe is a member of the firm’s corporate group. His experience includes mergers and acquisitions, takeover defenses, sports media transactions, and private equity fund formation. Mr. Rabe received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, a master of science degree at the London School of Economics, and his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

Ansgar Simon (New York): Mr. Simon has a broad-based transactional tax practice. He regularly advises on mergers and acquisitions, restructuring transactions, recapitalizations, divestitures (including spin-offs), and the structuring of joint ventures, involving both corporations and partnerships for tax purposes. His advice also covers the financing of corporate and partnership transactions, the tax-efficient structuring for private equity funds and other alternative investment vehicles, and the tax-efficient structuring of inbound and outbound investments by and through such vehicles. Mr. Simon received his law degree from Stanford Law School and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Andrew Soukup (Washington): Mr. Soukup is a litigator who specializes in representing financial institutions and other corporate clients in class actions and other high-stakes commercial disputes. Mr. Soukup has represented clients in the financial services, communications, technology, and retail industries. He has particular expertise defending clients against consumer protection claims asserted in class-action lawsuits and other multistate proceedings. Mr. Soukup received his law degree and undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame.

Emily Ullman (Washington): Ms. Ullman has a complex civil litigation practice focusing on products liability and mass torts work, primarily representing members of the life sciences industry and consumer goods manufacturers and suppliers across federal and state courts. In addition, she counsels companies facing transactions, regulatory interactions, or strategic decisions that expose them to tort risk. She received her law degree from Harvard Law School and her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College.

Mark Young (London): Mr. Young advises clients on data privacy, cybersecurity, and online IP enforcement. He specializes in helping global companies, particularly in the online/e-commerce, technology, health, and pharmaceutical sectors, comply with data privacy rules when rolling out new products and services. He counsels clients on preparing for and responding to cyber-based attacks and internal threats to their networks and information, and comply with incident reporting and security obligations. Mr. Young also has over 10 years of experience providing strategic advice and advocacy on EU law reform issues and references to the EU Court of Justice in relation to data privacy, data retention and cybersecurity, cloud computing, e-commerce, and software related policy. Mr. Young received his L.P.C. at the College of Law (London), his LL.M in Technology Law at Glasgow Graduate School of Law, and his law degree (LL.B) from the University of Edinburgh.