Working at Covington
Our distinctively collaborative culture allows us to be truly one team globally, drawing on the diverse experience of lawyers and advisors across the firm by seamlessly sharing insight and expertise.
What sets us apart is our ability to combine the tremendous strength in our litigation, investigations, and corporate practices with deep knowledge of policy and policymakers, and one of the world’s leading regulatory practices.
This enables us to create novel solutions to our clients’ toughest problems, successfully try their toughest cases, and deliver commercially practical advice of the highest quality.
Learn more about our firm through videos:
What Makes Covington a Special Place?
Memorable Moments at Covington
Professional Development
We provide lawyers with the resources, experience, and support necessary to succeed. This means assisting lawyers with their professional development and career satisfaction.
Mentoring Program. Mentoring is integral to our culture, and associates can expect to be supported and benefit from a variety of mentors throughout their Covington career. Upon arrival at the firm, new associates are assigned a mentor to help with their integration and guide and support their careers.
Training Programs. With well over 200 in-house training programs offered each year, Covington fosters a learning environment for our lawyers. Our practice group-focused and skills training complements on-the-job learning to ensure associates develop the skills and knowledge needed to be successful practitioners.
Assignments. Our legal personnel partners are assigned a group of associates for whom they monitor individual growth and development throughout the associates' careers, whether they choose to specialize early on or try a variety of practice areas.
Associate Advisory Committee. This committee, which is comprised of both associates and partners, provides an organized way for the firm's management and associates to exchange views and perspectives.
Diversity and Inclusion
At Covington, we recognize the differences among us as an asset and a source of strength. We believe that excellence in the practice of law knows no racial, ethnic, gender, religious, sexual orientation, or other boundaries.
Covington lawyers bring a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences to our practice. By recruiting, retaining, developing, and promoting a diverse group of lawyers, we advance the interests of our clients, our practice.
Affinity Groups: An important part of our work and culture, affinity groups help us connect
and provide mentoring, learning, and development opportunities in professional forums.
- African American/Black
- Asian American
- Hispanic/Latino
- LGBT+
- Women’s Forum
- Veterans
Social and Racial Justice: We have joined the newly formed Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, a coalition of leading U.S. law firms that will work collectively to challenge systemic racism in the law and in government institutions.
Pro Bono
From its beginning, Covington has been committed not only to the highest professional standards of representation but also to public service. The firm’s pro bono program has long been acknowledged as preeminent in the legal community—our work is anchored in providing legal assistance to people and organizations of limited means in our surrounding communities, while also always looking to take on sometimes challenging matters that affect the most vulnerable clients and support important causes.
Commitment to pro bono service is a hallmark of our firm’s culture and has been integral throughout our one-hundred-year history. For the second consecutive year, The National Law Journal has named Covington to its "Pro Bono Hot List." The firm has appeared on The American Lawyer’s “A-List”—an annual ranking of the top 20 firms based on revenue per lawyer, pro bono commitment, diversity, associate satisfaction, and the percentage of female equity partners—15 times since it was introduced in 2003.
Lawyers are encouraged to work on a variety of pro bono matters across a range of clients and subject areas. Many of Covington’s pro bono efforts are anchored in meeting significant local needs, such as civil legal aid and indigent defense. The firm also has a long history of serving the most vulnerable clients and important causes, regardless of location. Covington handles numerous death penalty and wrongful conviction matters across the United States, as well as other important civil and human rights matters, including efforts focused on veterans, the environment, immigration, non-profits and enterprise, LGBTQ+, civil rights, racial justice, gun violence prevention, and women and girls’ empowerment.
We have redoubled our efforts to combat racism and promote social justice through our pro bono efforts. In just the last year and a half, the firm has devoted nearly 120,000 pro bono hours to racial justice issues, worth more than $75 million.
Lawyers in all of Covington’s offices are also working to advance international human rights and global access to justice, advising hundreds of NGOs focused on improving access to food, water, healthcare, education, economic opportunity, and justice in the world’s poorest regions.
Pro bono assignments are an important way to develop skills and gain experience early in an associate’s career. Last year 100 percent of our U.S.-based associates worked on pro bono matters.
Summer Program
Through our summer associate program, we provide a select and diverse group of law students from around the country the opportunity to actively participate in a broad and exciting range of legal matters.
Through immersion into our practice, summer associates are exposed to Covington’s enduring cultural values—the values that shape our delivery of the highest quality service to our clients and our contributions to the public interest through dynamic and precedent-setting pro bono legal work.
Assignments: Work with Us. Our interactive and individualized assignment system is the foundation of our program. We actively solicit input from summer associates on desired assignments and encourage them to try projects in multiple practice areas.
Customized. Summer associate assignments are tailored to individual practice interests. We encourage summer associates to explore and find those practice areas that resonate most with their individual interests.
A Variety of Real Legal Work. Our goal is to evaluate a summer associate’s abilities based on real assignments, whether researching issues and drafting briefs, or negotiating contracts. Our lawyers and clients rely on the work product that our summer associates help produce.
Education: Learn with Us. Our substantive summer training programs include depositions, advocacy writing, communication skills, and transaction and settlement negotiations. Summer associates are also invited to participate in client and internal strategy meetings and court hearings.
Social: Get to Know Us. We ensure that our summer associates get to know our lawyers. Typical activities include sporting events, concerts, wine tastings, and hiking. Virtual events in 2020 included paint night and trivia.
To Learn More, Download the 2020 Summer Associate Program Brochure.
COVID Statement
Our summer associate classes make up the most robust talent pipeline for the Firm. In the summer of 2020, we remained committed to our summer associates and made the decision early on to conduct our eight-week summer associate program remotely. Firm wide, our teams worked hard to build a virtual program from to ensure that our summer associates still had the same multifaceted summer experience as years past, as well as the same opportunities to meet our lawyers, work on exciting legal matters, and learn about our culture and values.
During these unprecedented times, the health and safety of our people, including our recruits, remains our top priority. We will continue to be nimble and will conduct future recruiting activities virtually as necessary.
