Marney Cheek’s commentary was included in a Law360 article discussing how President Donald Trump’s aggressive moves on tariffs have prompted law firms with robust international disputes practices to ramp up their preparedness for an expected onslaught of cases.
Marney told Law360 that after the election, Covington quickly put together a group of senior lawyers in various practice areas to ensure that they were thinking about all the issues that could arise as a result of the tariffs. She said that the firm has been conducting meetings where partners who are advising clients about tariffs on a daily basis can provide advice to colleagues who may specialize in other areas.
"We have practice group meetings where we talk about what's going on, and we exchange ideas about how we can deal with it and how we can help our clients," she said. "Those of us that are dealing with this day in and day out, we can see a little bit further into the future based on our experience who this is going to touch."
Marney, meanwhile, said that many of Covington’s clients have been seeking guidance on how to adapt their business relationships to the tariffs, with questions including which party in a supply contract is responsible for paying the tariff and whether one side can declare force majeure as a result of the tariffs.
"There's still a lot of uncertainty about, ultimately, where some of these tariffs will end up. To the extent that clients want easy, simple answers, there really aren't a lot of easy, simple answers when the policy is changing so rapidly from day to day. We can add a lot of value for our clients by helping them understand the trade landscape and how policy actually affects their business from a practical perspective."
Marney added, "I do expect there will be disputes down the line if there's a major contract where the parties can't seem to find a way forward given the tariffs that are in place."
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