Law360 named Covington a White Collar Group of the Year, and the accompanying profile included commentary from Steven Fagell and Aaron Lewis about Covington’s success in the white collar and investigations space.
With around 60 senior attorneys working in the practice group, Steve said the firm boasts an "unmatched record in securing declinations" for clients being investigated by the government, meaning investigators close their probe without taking action. Steve added that the firm is distinguished by its "market-leading regulatory expertise, which is so often at the core of modern day white collar enforcement" and a "culture of collegiality and collaboration." "I think many firms have experience in settling big cases for big dollars but very few firms — and Covington leads the pack, I would say — have experience in routinely convincing the enforcers to close cases without action," Steve noted.
Asked how the firm is able to secure so many declinations, Steve said Covington likes to say they are "honest brokers with the facts, but very tenacious advocates on behalf of our clients." "What that means is that we have a deep reservoir of credibility with regulators and that allows us to achieve these pretty extraordinary results for our clients," Steve told Law360.
Aaron said, "We're always on the move at Covington and this year was no different," adding that the firm had a number of notable additions in the last year, including Kristin Mace, who was the head of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York and Dana Remus and Stacey Grigsby, who formerly worked at the White House Counsel's Office.
The profile highlighted the firm’s representation of Scott Gillis, the former chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Oregon based private equity firm Aequitas Management while the DOJ and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigated the firm's collapse.
"I think that the case really shows that in addition to being really fierce advocates for our corporate clients, which, as you've seen, has led to an extraordinary record of declinations and favorable resolutions, we are equally fierce on behalf of our individual clients and can rescue them from very serious federal criminal charges," Steve said.
Covington, the profile noted, also secured a declination for pharmaceutical research company Inotiv after Florida federal prosecutors launched a probe in 2019 into whether two companies it acquired had imported wild-caught endangered monkeys in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the Endangered Specials Act and the Lacey Act.
Aaron said the case was an example of the synergy that exists between teams at Covington and the "deep bench" of former prosecutors and attorneys with regulatory expertise that the firm has. The case was somewhat unusual, Aaron said, because of the statutes used and its length. "It really spotlights the need in these cases for deep regulatory expertise coupled with tenacity," Aaron noted. "And I think we really excel in that arena."
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