David Pinsky Named Law360 'Rising Star'

David Pinsky Named Law360 'Rising Star'

April 21, 2016

New York — Law360 has named Covington international arbitration partner David Pinsky a “Rising Star.” This annual recognition honors top attorneys under the age of 40 “whose legal accomplishments belie their age.”

Law360 recognized how Mr. Pinsky, who leads Covington’s arbitration group’s Russia and Eurasia initiative, helped develop the firm’s Russia-focused arbitration practice, “by leveraging his knowledge of the ex-Soviet region’s politics,” and by “playing a key role in victorious, precedent-setting arbitration proceedings for Spanish minority investors in Yukos Oil Co. and enlisting high-profile business clients faced with sanction threats from Russia.”

The profile also highlights Mr. Pinsky’s role in Covington’s recent engagement by Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. Specifically, Law360 writes that Mr. Pinsky, who was born in Ukraine, “recently assembled a team and successfully pitched the firm’s virtues to Ukraine’s NJSC Naftogaz,” which “was looking for counsel to help it recover damages from Russia’s seizure of its investments in Crimea.” Mr. Pinsky currently serves as lead counsel on the Naftogaz matter.

In addition to his arbitration work, Mr. Pinsky, who arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1979, maintains an active pro bono practice focused on immigration law, and he has won asylum and other forms of immigration relief for clients from Uzbekistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.

“I focus my pro bono practice on immigration law because I recognize the importance of the help that my family received, and I’d like to play some part in helping others who are similarly in need,” Mr. Pinsky told Law360.

Mr. Pinsky serves as vice chair of Covington’s New York litigation practice and is also a long-time member of the firm’s Public Service Committee.