Covington & Burling

Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Known as a white-shoe law firm, it is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters.[4] The firm has additional offices in the United States, as well as in Belgium, China, England, Germany, South Africa, South Korea, and United Arab Emirates.

History

Judge J. Harry Covington and Edward B. Burling founded Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., on January 1, 1919.[5][6][7]

In 1988, Covington opened a London office that was followed in 1990 by opening a Brussels office. In 1999, Covington merged with Howard, Smith & Levin, a New York firm of 60 attorneys and the firm opened its first West Coast office in San Francisco.[8]

Pro bono work

Covington's pro bono work focuses on providing legal services to people in local communities. Attorneys at the firm may participate in a six-month rotation program and work at each of three D.C.-based legal service organizations: Neighborhood Legal Services Program, the Children's Law Center, and Bread for the City.[21]

Covington's pro bono work includes representation in Buckley v. Valeo, Griffin v. Illinois,[22] and Korematsu v. United States. They supported the District of Columbia in District of Columbia v. Heller, arguing that the District's ban on the possession of handguns and its storage provisions for other firearms in the home is not implicated by the Second Amendment.[23]

Covington provided pro bono work for special counsel Jack Smith who brought two criminal cases against Donald Trump.[24] After Trump became president for the second time in 2025, the Trump administration retaliated against Covington by pulling the security clearances of staff at the law firm.

Representation of Guantanamo Bay inmates

Attorneys at Covington & Burling have been Guantanamo Bay attorneys for Ahmed al-Ghailani,[25] fifteen Yemenis, one Pakistani, and one Algerian being held at Guantanamo Bay. The firm obtained favorable rulings that detainees have rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Geneva Conventions.[26] The court ruled in March 2005 that the government could not transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay to foreign custody without first giving the prisoners a chance to challenge the move in court.

According to an annual pro bono survey of The American Lawyer, Covington attorneys spent 3,022 hours on Guantanamo litigation in 2007, "the firm's largest pro bono project that year". Attorneys from the firm who have become administration officials, such as Lanny Breuer, have been advised by ethics officials to recuse themselves in matters involving detainees represented by their former firms, but not from policy issues where they were not personally and substantially involved.

Covington also co-authored one of three petitioner briefs filed in Boumediene v. Bush "and was responsible for several detainee victories" in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, although they did not participate in litigation over the Guantanamo Bay prison.

headquarters	850 Tenth Street, NW Washington, D.C., U.S.
num offices	10
offices	Global
num attorneys	1,210 (2024)‡R1R‡
practice areas	Transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters
date founded	1919
key people	Douglas G. Gibson,‡R2R‡ Peter Koski‡R3R‡
company type	Limited liability partnership
homepage	cov.com

Covington & Burling

History

Targeting by the second Trump administration

Notable clients and cases

State of California

Commonwealth of Australia

Pro bono work

Representation of Guantanamo Bay inmates

Current and former attorneys

External links

References