Government Litigation

For decades, Covington has successfully represented clients in high-stakes litigation both for and against federal, state, and local governments. Covington lawyers have significant experience handling federal government enforcement actions involving a wide range of agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Defense (DoD), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and others, as well as proceedings brought by State Attorneys General.

We regularly represent clients in litigation challenging federal agency regulations under the Administrative Procedure Act and similar frameworks. Across all of this work, we combine unparalleled subject-matter expertise with a deep and diverse set of litigation strengths. Our broad-based capabilities allow us to successfully handle complex disputes, challenge unlawful agency actions, and mount vigorous defenses on behalf of our clients. Clients also call on Covington to represent them as intervenors in support of favorable government actions.

Federal Litigation

Whether proactively challenging a U.S. government measure as unlawful or defending against a federal enforcement action, litigation involving the U.S. government involves different challenges than general commercial disputes and requires special expertise. Our teams have successfully represented clients in many of the most high-stakes, novel, and widely-publicized federal government litigation matters in recent years.

On behalf of TikTok, for example, we successfully challenged the federal government’s attempts to ban the platform, resulting in multiple injunctions blocking the ban. We have also represented companies in successful challenges to regulations and enforcement proceedings undertaken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), DoD, U.S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Many of these matters require our clients to advocate before all three branches of government simultaneously, including litigation in court, proceedings before an agency, and advocacy in Congress. Our team specializes in developing comprehensive strategies that tie those proceedings together and drive them towards a successful outcome.

State Attorneys General

Our experience at the federal level complements our extensive capabilities in litigation adverse to State Attorneys General, which pose increasing legal and reputational risks for clients. Our team has litigated many of the most sensitive and consequential State AG matters ranging from antitrust to privacy and data security to consumer protection. For example, we are currently serving as lead trial counsel for Meta in defending hundreds of novel claims filed across the country on behalf of school districts, over 40 State Attorneys General, and the parents of teens alleging harm from their teen’s excessive exposure to social media platforms. We also recently secured the outright dismissal of two lawsuits brought by the Indiana Attorney General against TikTok, which resulted in our team being recognized as Litigators of the Week by The American Lawyer, and we represent a multinational technology company as co-counsel in antitrust litigation filed by the California Attorney General related to retail pricing. As national counsel for McKesson, we defended the company in sprawling State AG-led litigation related to opioid distribution in dozens of U.S. states, counties, and territories.

Our Strong Bench

Covington’s talented litigators represent clients and their interests across a wide range of issues, complemented by a team of more than 120 lawyers who previously served as government prosecutors and as high-ranking agency and administrative officials. Our team also includes more than a dozen former U.S. Supreme Court law clerks and former law clerks from every federal court of appeals, allowing us to fashion strategies and arguments that will resonate in court. We bring this deep government experience to bear for clients as we litigate precedent-setting and high-stakes cases involving the government in trial courts, before administrative boards and judges, and in various courts of appeal. In recent years, this experience has included major administrative law cases before the U.S. Supreme Court on issues including the Major Questions Doctrine, immigration and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and reform of the FCC’s media ownership regulations.

Representative Matters

• National counsel for McKesson in government-led litigation centered on opioid distribution in dozens of U.S. states, counties, and territories. The matters include multiple Attorney General actions, a federal Multi-District Litigation, and hundreds of state actions by municipal and county governments.
• Represented TikTok in challenging the Trump Administration’s attempt to ban the platform, resulting in multiple injunctions blocking the government action and the eventual dismissal of the case after the ban was withdrawn.
• Serving as lead trial counsel for a multinational technology conglomerate in hundreds of mass tort cases filed across the country on behalf of school districts, over 40 State Attorneys General, and the parents of teens in novel claims alleging harm to teens from excessive exposure to social media platforms.
• Representing a multinational technology company in an FTC investigation and litigation into data security and privacy issues, as well as automatic renewal issues for subscription services.
• Successfully represented EcoVest in a major civil tax lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice in federal court in Atlanta, alleging that EcoVest organized, promoted, and sold an abusive tax scheme. The case was very aggressively litigated by the parties for several years, including extensive motion practice and dozens of fact and expert depositions, before achieving a favorable settlement.
• Obtained a nationwide preliminary injunction for California Life Sciences Association against HHS’s most-favored nation drug pricing rule.
• Represented Xiaomi Corporation in challenging the Department of Defense designation that would have blacklisted the company from U.S. financial markets, resulting in an injunction that blocked the designation and restored $10 billion to Xiaomi’s market capitalization.
• Represented pharmaceutical manufacturers in Administrative Procedure Act litigation challenging a federal drug discounting program.
• Represented a group of video-content providers in appealing an FCC order that would have disclosed the companies’ confidential trade secrets to third parties.