NLJ Names Covington to Appellate Hot List

NLJ Names Covington to Appellate Hot List

June 3, 2013

WASHINGTON, DC, June 3, 2013 — For the fifth time, The National Law Journal has named Covington & Burling to its “Appellate Hot List.” The 2013 list recognizes firms whose appellate track records over the past year have included significant victories in cases that affect the course of industries, vindicate important constitutional rights, and have high financial stakes.

The NLJ’s summary of the firm’s appellate record highlighted the legal argument successfully advanced by Robert Long and his team on behalf of CBS and NBC television affiliates in the Supreme Court challenge to the FCC’s so-called “fleeting expletives” policy.

The NLJ also noted the firm’s victory before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on behalf of BP. Following the Deepwater Horizon spill, insurers that had issued policies to rig owner Transocean Ltd. agreed that they covered BP as an “additional insured” but argued that they did not cover BP as such for pollution liabilities. After a New Orleans federal court adopted the insurers’ position, David Goodwin and Allan Moore convinced a unanimous panel of the Fifth Circuit to reverse.

And the NLJ cited a string of appellate victories secured by Covington lawyers Michael Imbroscio and Paul Schmidt on behalf of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., which faces more than 7,000 products liability lawsuits related to Accutane. Covington has now prevailed in 11 appeals for Roche in the Accutane litigation, including wins in the Tenth and Eleventh Circuits and in the New Jersey Supreme Court.

The list and profiles of the winning firms appear in the NLJ’s June 3 issue.

Covington’s highly regarded appellate practice, spanning offices across the country, includes former federal judges, former assistants to the Solicitor General, and numerous former federal appellate and U.S. Supreme Court law clerks.