Covington’s leading Business and Human Rights (BHR) practice advises a broad spectrum of multinational companies on rapidly evolving developments related to the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Working seamlessly across disciplines and geographies, we help senior management at a broad spectrum of multinational corporations implement best practices and identify, manage, and resolve issues related to human rights in global operations.
As a firm at the intersection of law and policy, we are ideally equipped to meet the emerging needs of global corporations to mitigate legal, reputational and operational risk, and crisis scenarios arising as a result of an array of pressures from regulators and enforcement agencies, investors, consumers, NGOs, and other key stakeholders.
Multi-disciplinary Team
Our integrated BHR team is composed of leading lawyers and policy advisors on four continents with extensive backgrounds in human rights, ethics, and sustainability. Our team’s experience includes serving as senior government officials in the U.S. and across Europe, with international NGOs and think tanks, and in academia.
We advise clients spanning a range of sectors, including technology, telecommunications, life sciences, manufacturing, apparel agribusiness, mining/extractives, energy, financial services, and apparel. Our practice is driven by market-leading international human rights, employment, dispute resolution, public policy, global supply chain, anti-corruption, global problem solving, government contracts, trade, and environmental lawyers. We leverage Covington’s wide range of subject matter and industry expertise to tailor strategies to each client’s particular needs.
Key Services
Our team has extensive experience helping companies navigate the complex BHR field, including responding to inquiries from and working with regulatory agencies (such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection) and developing global human rights oversight policies and procedures. We advise on compliance with multi-jurisdictional transparency reporting laws, including the UK and Australian Modern Slavery Acts, the Californian Transparency in Supply Chains Act, the FAR Anti-Trafficking Rules for Government Contractors, the French Duty of Vigilance Law, the Dutch Child Labor Due Diligence Act, the Alien Tort Statute, and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Key services include:
- Assessing, drafting, benchmarking, and implementing global human rights policies and procedures
- Responding to U.S. and international enforcement actions related to forced and child labor regulations
- Performing global human rights due diligence
- Advising on supply chain human rights management
- Complying with transparency reporting requirements
- Defending in international human rights litigation
- Developing and implementing human rights infrastructure and training
- Assisting with downstream human rights risk management
- Fostering and developing stakeholder relationships
- Advising on key pro bono matters involving social justice initiatives and BHR
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