Covington Announces Ten New Counsel

Covington Announces Ten New Counsel

April 10, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2015 — Covington is pleased to announce the promotion of three lawyers to of counsel and seven lawyers to special counsel, effective April 1, 2015.

The new of counsel are as follows:

John Balzano (New York) represents companies and industry associations on U.S. and China regulatory and policy matters related to food, drugs, and other regulated products. He has particular experience in the U.S. advising on regulatory issues facing over-the-counter drug products, as well as on issues related to the acquisition of biospecimens for non-clinical research. He has experience advising on various aspects of the law and regulation enforced by the China Food and Drug Administration and other agricultural and healthcare regulations, including in M&A and other transactions.

Martin Beeler (New York) focuses his practice on bankruptcy, restructuring, debtor-creditor rights, and other aspects of insolvency, including both transactional and contested matters. He represents a broad range of interested parties, including borrowers, secured and unsecured lenders, debtor-in-possession lenders, trade creditors, creditors’ committees, equityholders, chapter 11 trustees, indenture trustees and policyholders.

Marie Lavalleye (Washington) provides broad-based global IP Rights counseling to clients in the consumer products, entertainment, financial services, pharmaceutical, publication, software, sports and telecommunications industries. She routinely devises and implements effective global trademark clearance, registration, enforcement and portfolio management strategies for clients in these industries. She also performs IP due diligence and works closely with other deal team members to craft and negotiate the IP provisions in M&A deals as well as in complex licensing and other arrangements involving high value IP rights.

The new special counsel are as follows:

Heather Finstuen (Washington) focuses her practice on government contracts, investigations, and national security law. Ms. Finstuen represents and counsels government contractors in connection with federal inquiries and enforcement actions, internal investigations, mandatory disclosures, and compliance policies and procedures. In the national security area, Ms. Finstuen represents domestic and international companies in numerous industries in securing the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and frequently advises companies and individuals on national security regulations relating to security clearances, safeguarding classified information, and the determination and mitigation of foreign ownership, control, or influence by the Defense Security Service of the Department of Defense.

Kenny Henderson (London) focuses his practice on a wide range of contentious and quasi-contentious matters, including litigation before the English courts, arbitral proceedings and internal corporate investigations. Mr. Henderson is experienced in a broad variety of high stakes and complex disputes, frequently with a cross-border element. Mr. Henderson also advises clients on dispute mitigation strategies, to avoid or reduce potential litigation exposure resulting from commercially-driven decisions. Mr. Henderson has significant experience in cybersecurity and trade secret matters, advising clients on pre-breach mitigation steps and post-breach responses.

Ron Hewitt (New York) focuses his practice on bankruptcy, in and out of court restructuring and reorganization, and capital and credit markets transactions. His clients have included debtors, creditors, secured and unsecured lenders, equity holders, committee members, administrative and collateral agents, and indenture trustees. He also regularly represents participants in a wide range of derivatives transactions, as well as related ISDA and SIFMA documentation.

Jonas Marson (San Francisco) focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, including public and private acquisitions, dispositions and minority investments, as well as strategic alliances and joint ventures. Mr. Marson also advises emerging companies on transactional matters and provides general corporate advice. His clients include technology, life sciences, finance and alternative energy companies.

Christie Tang (Seoul) focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, finance, project finance and general corporate matters in a variety of industries. She has represented leading Korean companies in their investments outside Korea, primarily in the energy and technology sectors.
 

Anuj Vohra (Washington) advises clients in a range of contracting issues during all stages of the procurement process. He regularly litigates such matters, including bid protests, before federal agencies, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. His practice also includes compliance counseling, internal investigations, claim preparation and disputes, and contractor representation before agency suspension and debarment officials and agency Offices of the Inspector General.
 

Hui Xu (Shanghai) represents clients in multi-jurisdiction white collar litigation, conducts a broad range of sensitive internal investigations (including anti-corruption, trade secret, export control, product safety, securities fraud and others), performs compliance due diligence for high-profile/cross-border transactions, presents bilingual compliance training for senior executives and management teams, and advises on compliance with the FCPA, Chinese anti-fair competition and bribery laws, as well as other regulatory compliance laws and regulations.