Former Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan Returns to Covington

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Covington & Burling LLP is pleased to announce that former Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan is rejoining the firm as a partner. Mr. Dugan will chair the firm’s Financial Institutions Group, and will advise clients on a range of legal matters affected by significantly increased regulatory requirements resulting from the financial crisis, including implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act; financial institution mergers, acquisitions, and investments; litigation and enforcement issues; international financial regulation; and legislative and government relations issues.

Former Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan returns to Covington & Burling LLP (Photo: Business Wire)

As Comptroller, Mr. Dugan headed the agency that supervises over 1,500 national banks and federal branches of foreign banks, which together hold nearly two-thirds of the assets of the U.S. commercial banking system. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. During his five-year term, he led the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) through the financial crisis and ensuing recession that resulted in extraordinary regulatory and supervisory actions for national banks of all sizes, including government assistance provided under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP); resolutions of large, mid-size, and community banks; and the successful implementation of regulatory “stress tests.”

Mr. Dugan also was deeply involved in numerous supervisory and regulatory initiatives, such as capital standards issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, on which he served; policy and regulatory recommendations of the Financial Stability Board, where he participated because of his chairmanship of the Joint Forum (an international committee of banking, securities, and insurance regulators); guidance and supervisory action on a range of residential mortgage and credit card issues; and successful litigation efforts to preserve key federal preemption attributes of the national bank charter.

Most recently, Mr. Dugan directed the OCC’s efforts to help shape critical parts of the sweeping Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, including its provisions on systemic risk regulation and the Financial Stability Oversight Council; federal preemption; new capital regulation; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; revamped derivatives regulation; and the so-called “Volcker Rule” limitations on banks’ trading and investment activities.

“With over 25 years of experience in financial institution policy, regulatory, supervisory, litigation, and legislative issues – both in private practice and in senior positions in the federal government – John brings extraordinary knowledge of financial institutions and the current legal and policy landscape,” said Timothy C. Hester, chair of Covington’s management committee. “This will be a tremendous asset to financial institution clients addressing important regulatory, litigation, and corporate issues.”

Mr. Dugan sees his return to Covington as an opportunity to help organizations navigate the new, comprehensive, and complex regulatory environment that will affect financial institutions of all types and sizes. “Covington has an established foundation of exceptional regulatory expertise integrated with its corporate, securities, litigation, enforcement, and legislative practices,” Mr. Dugan said. “That combination of skills and integrated approach is exactly what I believe financial institution clients will need in the new environment, and I want to build on that foundation going forward.”

Before first coming to Covington in 1993, Mr. Dugan served as Assistant Secretary for Domestic Finance at the U.S. Department of Treasury, and as Counsel and Minority General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School. He will be resident in the firm’s Washington office beginning in early January.

Covington & Burling LLP, an international law firm, provides corporate, litigation, and regulatory expertise to enable clients to achieve their goals.Founded in 1919, the firm has more than 800 lawyers and offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC.

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