Covington Boosts Public Policy Practice with Alexis Lautenberg

Covington Boosts Public Policy Practice with Alexis Lautenberg

December 3, 2018

BRUSSELS—Alexis Lautenberg has joined Covington’s Public Policy practice as a Senior Advisor.

Ambassador Lautenberg is a long-serving Swiss diplomat whose career has been focused on European financial services and trade policy. His forty years of public service included postings as Swiss Ambassador to the EU, Italy and the UK. In 2013, he co-founded the Swiss Finance Council, the European policy platform for the internationally active Swiss financial institutions, which he chaired until earlier this year. He remains a senior advisor to its board.

“Ambassador Lautenberg’s arrival will bolster the firm’s expertise in European financial services policy and will build on our existing capabilities in the EU, deepening the support we can offer clients in this core industry for the firm,” said Bruce Bennett, co-chair of Covington’s Financial Services Group. Sebastian Vos, co-chair of Covington’s Public Policy practice, said: “Alexis brings deep experience in European financial services policy – and in particular the EU’s third country equivalence rules in banking and financial regulation, which will be an important issue for the UK financial services sector after Brexit. In addition, Alexis will help us provide better support to clients with issues relating to Switzerland and the complex web of international agreements that govern Swiss-EU relations.”

“The EU continues to confront a number of complex financial services policy questions, including Brexit, continued economic uncertainty in the eurozone, and significant regulation,” said Ambassador Lautenberg. “I look forward to drawing on my understanding and experience of these issues to help clients looking for some certainty in uncertain times. I am excited to join Covington’s well regarded Public Policy practice. It is a natural fit, given its role helping the world’s leading companies confront issues at the intersection of law and politics, in Europe and globally.”

The largest Public Policy and Government Affairs practice of any law firm in the EU, Covington’s European team includes a range of former policymakers:

• Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden

• Lord Francis Maude, former Minister for Europe and Minister for Trade and Investment in the UK Government

• Sir Michael Leigh, former Director-General of DG Enlargement at the European Commission

• Ambassador Jean De Ruyt, one of the most experienced diplomats in Europe, who was most recently the Permanent Representative of Belgium to the European Union

• Ambassador Péter Balás, former Deputy Director General of DG Trade at the European Commission

• Ambassador Karel Kovanda, former Deputy Director General of DG External Relations (now the European External Action Service) at the European Commission

• Stuart E. Eizenstat, former U.S. Ambassador to the EU

• Erika Mann, former Member of the European Parliament

• Kevin Coates, former Head of Unit for Cartels at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition

• Sophie Bertin, former Head of the Unit in charge of State Aid to the Financial Institutions at the European Commission (the so-called ‘Financial Crisis Task Force’)