National Security
Covington is widely recognized as a leading law firm for national security matters, advising companies, investors, institutions, and individuals on the most complex and consequential issues at the intersection of law, regulation, government enforcement, and business strategy. Chambers USA ranks Covington Band 1 in National Security nationwide, and the firm also holds Band 1 rankings in closely related disciplines that are often essential to national security matters, including CFIUS, Trade Controls, Government Contracts, White Collar Investigations, Telecom, Broadcast and Satellite, and Privacy and Data Security.
Our National Security practice has unparalleled experience on cutting-edge national security matters that cut across multiple disciplines. Clients turn to Covington for business-critical issues that require expertise on national security across multiple domains, such as contracting with defense and intelligence agencies, national industrial security requirements, foreign investment review, export controls and trade sanctions, trade, telecommunications, cybersecurity, mergers and acquisitions, and investigations. Our experience is borne from over two decades of leading-edge matters, giving the team unusual experience with disputes, transactions, investigations, and strategic counseling that are high-stakes, cross-disciplinary, and often time-sensitive.
What distinguishes Covington is depth across the full national security landscape. The firm advises on the complete lifecycle of national security-sensitive matters: from structuring and diligence, to regulatory approvals and mitigation, to enforcement defense, internal investigations, remediation, and strategic engagement with government stakeholders. Covington’s lawyers regularly handle matters involving CFIUS, FOCI and industrial security, export controls and sanctions, cybersecurity compliance, public policy, congressional scrutiny, government contracts, economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, protection of classified information, and national-security-linked M&A.
Covington stands apart for its in-government national security experience. Our senior lawyers and advisors have served in national security-related roles across the White House, the Departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, and State, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the FBI, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and components of the U.S. Intelligence Community. We bring this collective experience to bear to help clients understand and navigate often opaque processes and devise solutions that account for core national security interests of the U.S. government while also achieving our clients’ commercial objectives.
Covington’s National Security client base underscores the breadth of the practice. Our experience reflects work across industries central to U.S. national security, including aerospace and defense, semiconductors, telecommunications, technology, energy, critical minerals, media, financial services, and advanced manufacturing. Whether it is working on the most complicated and prominent national security reviews of transactions, the most impactful government procurement matters, investment and trade matters for the most important global energy and critical mineral companies, compliance with lawful process matters for the leading technology companies, or export controls for the leading semiconductor companies, Covington is the go-to firm for companies that are most important to U.S. national security.
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