Top Government Contracts Partner Leaves Covington

Robert Nichols, a partner at Covington & Burling who helped lead the firm’s charge to grow its government contracts practice, has left the firm after four years.

As of Wednesday, his biography was taken down from the firm’s website and a Covington spokesman wished him well.

No official word yet on his future plans. A Big Law Business inquiry to reach Nichols, placed through the firm, hasn’t been returned. But one source familiar with his transition said that Nichols intends to start his own law boutique specializing in government contracts.

Below are his list of representative matters, according to an archived version of his Covington biography online.

• Lead Counsel for major Middle East contractor in negotiating completion of theU.S. Embassy in Baghdad, as well as navigating investigations and proceedings by the Department of Justice, Inspectors General, the U.S. Army and United Nations debarment offices, and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight & Government Reform.

• Lead counsel for Fortune 50 aerospace contractor in seeking a “present responsibility” determination by its military customers following a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, a consent agreement with the State Department, and special interest from the Senate Armed Services Committee.

• Lead counsel for a large international development contractor in resolving bet-the-company litigation over the imprisonment of a subcontractor employee in Cuba for espionage on behalf of the U.S. Government.

For more on Nichols, read the Washington Post’s coverage of his joining the firm from Crowell & Moring in 2012 .

Per the article:

At a time when federal spending is facing sizeable possible cuts, one law firm is betting on a future with more government contracting work.

Covington & Burling, the District’s largest law firm, is making an aggressive push to grow its government contracting practice. Despite maintaining the city’s largest law firm by the numbers — with more than 500 attorneys in Washington — Covington’s government contracts group has historically hovered between five and seven attorneys, led by one partner. Now, the firm is looking to quadruple manpower to up to 30 within the next five years, and they’ve brought in former Crowell & Moring partner Robert Nichols to help lead the charge.

Nichols comes from Crowell’s successful government contracting group, one of the most established and well-regarded in the city, and his appointment to co-chairman of Covington’s government contracts group marks one of the rare times the firm has tapped someone from the outside to lead a practice.

Nichols shares the title with longtime Covington partner Alan Pemberton, who’s served as sole chairman of the government contracts group since 2001. In Nichols, Covington has a younger partner (Nichols is 43 and Pemberton is 59) with a strong international practice representing contractors based abroad — an area poised to grow as more countries consider joining a World Trade Organization procurement agreement that would open up the bidding process to foreign-based companies.

Pemberton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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