Covington Promotes 14 Lawyers to Partner

Covington Promotes 14 Lawyers to Partner

October 1, 2024

WASHINGTON-Covington has promoted 14 lawyers to its partnership.

"We continue to build an exceptional pipeline of superbly talented lawyers across our offices and practices, who are well-positioned to carry the firm forward," said Doug Gibson, Covington's chair. "As we continue to build our firm from within, we see the strength of the junior half of our partnership as a core competitive advantage, and the many strengths of this particular group of new partners reflect that we're doing exceptionally well recruiting, retaining, and developing lawyers for the firm's future."

The new partners, who are based in Brussels, Los Angeles, London, New York, and Washington, are:

Thomas Brugato (Washington): Thomas focuses on environmental matters, as well as administrative litigation. He advises clients on a wide variety of environmental issues, including under every major environmental law, as well as the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Consumer Product Safety Act. Thomas has extensive experience in representing companies on FIFRA matters relating to a wide range of products and also has expertise in advising companies on Administrative Procedure Act issues. Thomas earned his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

John DeBoy (Washington): John is a seasoned litigator who represents companies in high stakes civil litigation, with a focus on product liability and mass torts. His experience spans numerous industries, including technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumer products, food, and automotive. In addition, John possesses deep expertise in litigation risks associated with new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, digital health, and additive manufacturing. His work has resulted in case-ending victories for his clients - on motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, and at trial. John earned his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. He also clerked for the Hon. Peter J. Messitte of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Nicholas Evoy (Washington): Nick represents life sciences and technology companies in high-stakes intellectual property disputes, trials, and appeals. His practice focuses on complex patent litigation before U.S. district courts, the International Trade Commission, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and on appeal before the Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. Nick earned his B.S. from Johns Hopkins University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.

Josh Gray (London): Josh is a technology and data-focused lawyer with a distinctly international practice combining commercial and regulatory expertise. Joshua focuses on digital infrastructure transactions, bespoke technology projects without precedent, privacy and GDPR, innovative projects involving the use of new technologies, and other business critical commercial transactions. Joshua provides "product counselling" to clients looking to launch new digital products and services and he routinely supports multi-jurisdictional projects covering areas such as e-commerce, consumer law, media licensing, telecoms and other technology regulatory issues. He received his B. Comm. from the University of Wollongong, and L.L.B. and L.L.M. from the University of New South Wales.

Heather Habes (Los Angeles): Heather focuses on complex insurance recovery for corporate policyholders under a variety of policies, including directors and officers liability, commercial general liability, professional liability, media liability, property, and employment practices. Working closely with in-house counsel and senior executives, she maximizes insurance protection and recovery in both informal negotiations and litigation against insurers. Heather earned her B.A. from the University of Washington and her J.D. from the University of Southern California.

Ben Land-Maycock (London): Ben is a corporate lawyer who helps clients execute strategic transactions. He acts on a full scope of transactional matters including public and private mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments, restructurings, and IPOs and equity capital markets transactions. Ben regularly advises clients in the technology, life sciences, and energy sectors. He also represents a number of private equity and venture capital investors on their investments, acquisitions and exits. He received a B.A. and LL.B. from Victoria University of Wellington and a Certificate in Professional Legal Studies from the College of Law, New Zealand.

Ashley Nyquist (Washington): Ashley is a white-collar defense lawyer who guides clients through their most sensitive, high-stakes matters, including government investigations and enforcement matters, independent investigations, and internal investigations into issues posing enterprise-level risk. She has considerable experience navigating complex, multi-dimensional matters involving parallel criminal, civil, and reputational risks. She regularly represents clients in connection with allegations of fraud, corruption, obstruction, and other criminal conduct or issues of regulatory concern, as well as other unique crisis-level issues. Ashley also routinely handles highly sensitive reviews and investigations related to workplace misconduct and institutional culture. Ashley earned her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Zachary Parks (Washington): Zack advises corporations, trade associations, campaigns, and high-net worth individuals on their most important and challenging political law problems. A Chambers-rated lawyer in Covington's nationally recognized Election and Political Law Practice Group, his expertise includes the Federal Election Campaign Act, the Lobbying Disclosure Act, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission's pay-to-play rules, and state political laws. He also regularly conducts political law due diligence for investment firms and corporations during mergers and acquisitions. Zack clerked for the Honorable Thomas B. Griffith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He earned his B.A. from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School.

Steve Petkis (Washington): Steve represents a variety of clients in their most sensitive, complex, and high-stakes litigation matters in both state and federal court. He regularly defends life sciences clients and other regulated entities against class action and mass tort claims that span jurisdictions, from pre-litigation planning through appeal, with a proven record of delivering victories at all stages. Steve earned his B.A. from the University of Connecticut and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

James McCall Smith (Washington): Jay advises clients on developing and implementing strategies to mitigate supply chain risks arising from U.S. trade actions. He regularly represents respondents in U.S. trade remedy proceedings and related litigation, helping to secure several negative injury determinations at the ITC in recent years. Jay also advises clients on the negotiation and enforcement of international treaty commitments under the WTO, bilateral and regional trade agreements such as the USMCA, and other international fora. Jay received his B.A. from Wake Forest University, his Ph.D. from Stanford University, and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Adam Studner (Washington): Adam represents companies and Boards of Directors in their most sensitive white collar criminal and civil investigations and defense matters, with a particular focus on government-facing and internal investigations arising under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other complex, cross-border matters. Adam routinely assists clients in developing, implementing, evaluating, and testing the efficacy of their global compliance programs across a range of regulatory areas, including through conducting risk assessments and compliance program assessments. He also regularly counsels clients on third party risk management, transactional due diligence, and other compliance-sensitive areas. Adam earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Melissa Van Schoorisse (Brussels): Melissa practices mainly EU and Belgian competition law. She focuses on a wide range of complex antitrust issues, including multi-jurisdictional merger control filings, foreign investment and foreign subsidies screening, international and Belgian cartel investigations, and general behavioral advice, counselling and compliance work. Melissa specializes in the wider music, media, and entertainment sector, where she has been involved in some of the most high profile cases both at a national and international level. Melissa has equally built up significant expertise in the consumer goods, transport, metals and mining, and the power generation and energy industries. She received her LL.M. from King's College London and a degree in law from Ghent University.

Brian Yang (Washington): Brian's practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions (including asset and stock sales and carve-out acquisitions and divestitures), joint venture arrangements, and corporate governance. Brian represents clients principally in the aerospace / defense and technology industries and has extensive experience working with both U.S. and international clients on cross-border transactions. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a JD/MBA from the University of Virginia.

Alicia Zhang (New York): Alicia helps clients execute capital-raising transactions and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Alicia represents underwriters and issuers in securities financings, including IPOs, follow-on equity and debt offerings, and private placements. She regularly advises on public company reporting, corporate governance developments and securities law issues. Alicia received her A.B. from Princeton University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

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