Covington Named to The National Law Journal's 2020 "Appellate Hot List"

WASHINGTON—The National Law Journal named Covington to its 2020 “Appellate Hot List.” Lawyers and law firms featured in the annual special report were recognized for winning “high-profile and high-stakes wins in the nation’s highest appellate courts across a number of practice areas—from Constitutional rights to immigration law to pharmaceutical and intellectual property disputes.”

Covington’s Appellate and Supreme Court practice distinguished itself in this year’s “Appellate Hot List” with a slate of victories at all levels of the federal and state appellate courts, including before the Supreme Court of the United States in one of the term’s most anticipated rulings over the status of DACA recipients and in a precedent-setting patent dispute on behalf of Return Mail. The successful representation of Eli Lilly in the Ninth Circuit in a putative class action seeking billions of dollars in damages was also noted as a significant victory in the firm’s profile.

Other Covington appellate victories key to the recognition included:

• Securing a 20th appellate win for Hoffmann-La Roche ending the decades-long Accutane litigation, which at its peak involved more than 8,000 cases.
• Successfully representing Boehringer Ingelheim before the Connecticut Supreme Court and securing important precedent for pharmaceutical companies in the area of federal preemption.
• Successfully representing Merck before the Third Circuit in a putative class action, Unilever in a victory against “junk science" before the Ninth Circuit, MGM in litigation over casino-development rights in Connecticut before the Second Circuit, and the American Petroleum Institute in multiple matters before the D.C. Circuit against the Environmental Protection Agency.

Led by veteran Supreme Court advocates Beth Brinkmann and Robert Long – with partners Mark Mosier, David Zionts, and Kevin King rounding out the core leadership team – Covington’s appellate practice includes more than 30 partners and more than 90 lawyers firmwide. Our team has four former Assistants to the Solicitor General of the United States and former law clerks from every federal court of appeals, in addition to 17 former Supreme Court clerks.