Covington Lawyers Help Secure $5B Award for Ukraine's Naftogaz

Law.com covered Covington's role as counsel to Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz in securing a $5 billion award against the Russian Federation for its 2014 seizure of the company’s assets in Crimea. New York-based Dave Pinsky, Washington, D.C.-based Marney Cheek and London-based Jeremy Wilson lead Covington’s team that represented Naftogaz and several of its subsidies in the years-long arbitration.

The compensation is the largest award granted by an International Arbitration Tribunal as indemnity for the expropriation of assets by Russia in Crimea, according to a statement issued by Naftogaz.

“This is not a normal arbitration where it’s just about the money. It’s about justice in its purest sense,” said Jeremy.

Covington lawyers said the ruling felt like an important moral victory amid the war. David, who was born in Kyiv, said the team has grown close with their Ukrainian counterparts throughout the years.

“One of the Ukrainian lawyers on the team, his daughter and my daughter share a name and there was a point after the war started when they were having Zoom calls together because we were trying to get them to know each other. That’s how close the teams had become,” David said. “I think that the personal relationships have made this all the more meaningful and it has made the victory that much sweeter.”