Law360 named Covington an International Trade Practice Group of the Year, and the accompanying profile included commentary from Jay Smith, Heather Finstuen, and Eric Sandberg-Zakian on the firm’s work in the international trade realm.
Jay told Law360 about Covington’s work to secure a highly publicized win for Can Manufacturers Institute in February 2024 when the U.S. International Trade Commission unanimously shot down tariffs on tin-mill steel imports from Canada, China and Germany despite calls for the duties by U.S. steel giant Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., the United Steelworkers and several lawmakers. Jay said the case was a "long shot" for the firm for several reasons and noted “this was a big deal for us because the commissioners took seriously the factual record and didn't just decide it in line with a lot of other steel cases.”
Heather discussed another case in which the firm saw British multinational and long-time Covington client BAE Systems PLC pass the finish line in its $5.5 billion acquisition of the aerospace subsidiary of its U.S. rival Ball Corp. Covington, as lead counsel, had helped BAE navigate national security matters before the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Heather touted the importance of the deal for BAE, saying that "it added important space capabilities to BAE Systems' already successful business, and allowed it to establish a new Space and Mission Systems business with an additional 5,000 employees that joined BAE." Heather goes on to say that "Covington has been handling their CFIUS work since 2006 and it's covered a range of acquisitions for them as their business has grown and developed. They are a pleasure to work with because they're a trusted partner of the U.S. government, and we've been able to develop a nice relationship with them."
Discussing what makes the firm so successful in this space, Eric cited the firm's "deep collaborative approach." "It's very rare that our clients are hiring us to solve a small, simple problem," Eric said. "Usually, our clients are hiring us to deal with a range of complicated and interconnected challenges, and it's rare that the best solution is going to come from one person with one narrow type of expertise."
Eric also shares his insight on the work done by Covington's trade controls enforcement practice group, which Eric said has been an already strong interdisciplinary collaboration between Covington's white collar defense attorneys and its international trade controls advisory lawyers. "We have had this practice for a long time, and we've grown it by essentially building lawyers who work in this space from the ground up," Eric added.
Jay concluded by looking at the expanding scope of international trade work, saying that "more recently, proposed trade measures are aimed at securing objectives entirely unrelated to trade or economic affairs, such as immigration or drug trafficking." "The policy space is a lot broader," he added. Covington, Jay said, has experts with a wide range of experiences that put the firm in a good position to tackle matters with broad implications.
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