Covington Promotes 15 to Partner

Covington Promotes 15 to Partner

October 3, 2022

WASHINGTON—Covington has promoted 15 lawyers to its partnership.

“We continue to build an exceptional pipeline of superbly talented and diverse 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 Dubai, London, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Washington, are:

Lindsey Barnhart (Palo Alto): Lindsey focuses on complex class actions and commercial litigation. She has handled matters involving a range of issues, such as consumer protection, breach of contract, warranty, fraud, and intellectual property claims, and works with clients in the technology, sports, consumer brands, and financial services industries. Lindsey received her B.A. from Northwestern University and her J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Joseph Chedrawe (Dubai): Joseph represents multinational corporations, state entities, and private clients in large-scale, high-value disputes, with a focus on mega projects in the energy, infrastructure, industrial, and residential sectors across the Middle East and Africa. Prior to the Middle East, he practiced in Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Joseph is a qualified barrister and solicitor and a skilled advocate before courts and arbitral tribunals. He is also regularly called upon to sit as an independent arbitrator, especially in relation to disputes in the Middle East.

Winsome Cheung (London): Winsome focuses on assisting life sciences and technology companies in the development and commercialization of their intellectual property assets. As a former scientist, she combines her knowledge of biochemistry with her legal and commercial experience to help companies – from start-ups and venture capital investors to global pharmaceutical companies – build value and monetize their intellectual property assets.

Rujul Desai (Washington): Leveraging his experience across the biopharma, PBM, and specialty pharmacy industries, Rujul counsels clients on health care regulatory, compliance, and contracting issues that affect drug pricing, market access, reimbursement, and digital health solutions for drugs, biologicals, devices, and diagnostics. He received his B.A. from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and his J.D. from University of Houston Law Center.

Matthew Franker (Washington): Matt advises public and private companies, underwriters, and boards of directors in capital markets offerings, securities disclosure and compliance matters, corporate governance and ESG matters, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate issues. Prior to joining Covington, Matt served at the SEC in the Division of Corporation Finance. Matt received his B.A. at Truman State University, his J.D. at The George Washington University Law School, and his LL.M. in securities and financial regulation at Georgetown University Law Center.

Matthew Hegreness (Washington): Matt provides strategic advice and regulatory counsel to the firm’s life sciences clients on the development, approval, and promotion of drugs and biological products, including protein, cell, and gene therapies. With a Ph.D. in genetics, he represents food, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies on critical matters before the FDA, FTC, and the National Advertising Division of the BBB National Programs. Matt earned his B.A. from Northwestern University, his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Sinead McLaughlin (London): Sinead has a broad commercial disputes practice, with a particular focus on crisis management and class actions, across a number of sectors, including advising major banks and financial institutions and technology companies. She often conducts internal investigations, advising clients in relation to investigations by regulators and other authorities, and acting in any subsequent disputes or litigation which may arise, particularly in relation to data and privacy matters, and competition. Sinead co-Chairs the firm's Women’s Forum in the London office and is also a member of Covington’s EMEA Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Zak Megeed (San Francisco): Zak advises life sciences companies in complex collaborations and other strategic transactional matters spanning the full range of discovery, development and commercialization activities. He received his B.Sc. from Rochester Institute of Technology, his Ph.D. from University of Maryland, and his J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

Monique O’Donoghue (London): Monique advises and represents clients in complex commercial disputes, serving as counsel in commercial arbitrations, including in both ad hoc proceedings under the UNCITRAL Rules, and institutional arbitrations under the rules of the ICC, the LCIA, and the DIAC. Monique’s practice covers a range of geographic regions, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and she has advised and represented international clients in complex commercial disputes in a range of industries and sectors, including technology, consumer brands, and oil and gas.

Ursula Owczarkowski (London): Ursula represents energy clients, government and parastatal entities, and lenders in the development, acquisition, financing and restructuring of projects with a particular emphasis on renewable projects in Africa and in the Middle East. Some of her recent work includes advising ACWA Power in relation to the world's largest green hydrogen project, and representing a sponsor consortium in relation to development and financing of the world's most ambitious regenerative tourism project to date, the $1.5 billion Red Sea Gigacity.

Brandon Palmen (Palo Alto): Brandon advises clients on their commercial and intellectual property transactions, drafting and negotiating agreements with key customers, suppliers, and technology development partners, complex data and intellectual property license agreements, and agreements associated with technology-focused mergers, acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, and spinoffs. Brandon earned his A.B. and A.L.M. from Harvard University, M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.

Lauren Pignataro Rakitin (Washington): Lauren specializes in transactional matters in the life sciences industry, with a particular focus on complex strategic collaborations and licensing arrangements. She regularly represents pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as they navigate the life cycles of their products, from discovery and development to commercialization and generic/biosimilar entry. Lauren received her B.S. from Cornell University, and her J.D. and LL.M. from New York University School of Law.

Christen Sewell (Los Angeles): Christen counsels private and public companies and executives on all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation, with a particular focus on benefits issues for start-ups and emerging growth companies. Christen received her B.A. from Wake Forest University and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

Caleb Skeath (Washington): Caleb advises clients on a broad range of cybersecurity and privacy issues, including cybersecurity incident response and investigations; regulatory inquiries and investigations from the FTC, state Attorneys General, and other regulators; cybersecurity and privacy compliance obligations; and defending against litigation and business disputes arising from privacy and cybersecurity issues. He earned his J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A./B.S. from American University, and holds a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification.

Veronica Yepez (Washington): Veronica is an experienced white-collar defense lawyer who regularly conducts cross-border investigations, represents corporate and individual clients before U.S. criminal and civil enforcement authorities, and advises on FCPA compliance. A tri-lingual lawyer, she draws upon her deep understanding of local business culture in Latin America and her on-the-ground experience to help clients operating in the region navigate complex cross-border compliance issues.