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, multi-jurisdictional 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. Key services include:
- Assessing, drafting, benchmarking, and implementing effective global human rights compliance programs to mitigate human rights risk and legal and reputational risks for businesses;
- Advising on and conducting Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) on a global, country, or product-specific basis;
- Devising strategies and conducting human rights due diligence exercises;
- Advising on transparency and reporting obligations as required by forced labor-related laws in the UK, California, Australia and Canada, and broader ESG reporting under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD);
- Ensuring effective oversight of human rights risk within existing corporate infrastructure and conducting internal training and awareness-raising programs and initiatives;
- Responding to U.S. and international enforcement actions related to forced and child labor regulations, including by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Customs and Border Protection;
- Defending in international arbitration and litigation involving human rights claims, as well as quasi-litigious complaints brought before OECD National Contact Points (NCPs);
- Advising on the drafting and implementation of supplier codes of conduct, related contractual clauses, audit rights, and other compliance documentation and issues;
- Assisting with cutting-edge issues including risks surrounding downstream human rights risk impacts of products and services;
- Fostering and developing stakeholder engagement and interaction;
- Building credible coalitions across a diverse range of industry participants to address human rights issues; and
- Advising on key pro bono matters involving social justice initiatives and emerging BHR frameworks.
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