The National Law Journal Names Covington to its "Appellate Hot List"

The National Law Journal Names Covington to its "Appellate Hot List"

October 25, 2019

WASHINGTON—The National Law Journal has named Covington to its “Appellate Hot List” for the eighth time. Lawyers and law firms featured in the annual special report were recognized for winning “key matters before the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals.”

Over the past two years, lawyers in Covington’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice distinguished themselves with an impressive slate of victories at all levels of appellate courts, including before the Supreme Court of the United States, numerous federal courts of appeal, and state appellate courts. In its profile, The National Law Journal highlighted Covington’s precedent setting victory in patent law before the Supreme Court, in Return Mail Inc. v. U.S. Postal Service et al. The group’s pro bono representation of the University of California Board of Regents as the Supreme Court decides the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was also key in securing the recognition.

Other Covington appellate victories key to the recognition included:

• Scoring an antitrust win in a $100 million lawsuit, where we represented Citigroup and argued on behalf of all 16 defendant global banks before the Second Circuit.
• A significant Seventh Circuit victory for Deutsche Bank in one of the first suits to test the bounds of the Anti-Terrorism Act’s liability after Congress expanded it to include secondary actors that knowingly provided substantial assistance to terrorists.
• Three major victories for Hoffmann-La Roche before the Supreme Courts of New Jersey and Nebraska, effectively ending 13 years of litigation concerning the company’s drug, Accutane.
• A successful appeal at the DC Circuit on behalf of Tribune Media Company, Twenty-First Century Fox, and Univision Communications in a case involving the Federal Communications Commission rule prohibiting a single station group from owning television stations with a "national audience reach" exceeding a specified percentage of U.S. households.
• A Second Circuit victory for Thomson Reuters where the court provided a roadmap for eliminating legal exposure under the Fair Credit Reporting Act when proprietary and public records data sold for legitimate and unregulated purposes is misused for a FCRA-regulated purpose.
• A pair of important wins for Deere & Company before the California Court of Appeal on big-dollar insurance issues arising out of Deere's claim for coverage for thousands of asbestos cases.
• A unanimous favorable ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court for AvisBudget Group and its subsidiary, Payless Car Rental System.
• A significant victory for Procter & Gamble in a $95 million class action in which the Second Circuit deemed the class certification remanded to the trial court to determine whether it should be decertified.

Led by veteran Supreme Court advocates  Beth Brinkmann and Robert Long - with partners Mark Mosier, David Zionts, and Kevin King rounding out the core team - Covington’s appellate practice features 30-plus partners, several with outstanding recent appellate win records in particular subject areas, including Paul Schmidt in product liability appeals and Richard Rainey in patent appeals. The group has more than 60 lawyers firm-wide. Our lawyers include multiple former Assistants to the Solicitor General of the United States, as well as former law clerks from every U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and more than a dozen former Supreme Court law clerks.