WASHINGTON, D.C. -

Covington — a law firm with a global footprint and whose stable of professionals includes former Attorney General Eric Holder, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — created a new consumer financial services practice aimed at assisting clients with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigations, examinations and enforcement actions.

Leading this new practice will be co-chair Eric Mogilnicki, who has joined the firm as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office. Andrew Smith, who served as a senior financial services lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission prior to joining Covington, will also lead the newly formed group.

Covington highlighted that Mogilnicki has the combination of four years’ experience at the center of some of the nation’s most critical public policy debates as well as more than 20 years of experience advising and representing financial institutions. In addition to his extensive experience in private practice, Mogilnicki previously served as chief of staff to Sen. Edward Kennedy when the CFPB was designed and has been a leader within the private bar on CFPB issues since its inception.

The firm also mentioned Mogilnicki’s CFPB experience includes counseling clients facing informal requests for information from the bureau to providing financial institutions and other interested parties with product reviews, mock examinations and other guidance prior to the commencement of CFPB examinations, representing entities in responding to CFPB civil investigative demands, negotiating consent orders with the CFPB, and assisting financial institutions in complying with CFPB consent orders.

“The combination of Eric’s very visible and successful CFPB enforcement experience with Andrew Smith’s prominence on consumer financial services advisory and policy matters positions Covington as an industry leader in the consumer financial services space,” said John Dugan, chair of the firm’s financial institutions group and former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency.

“As the CFPB is coming of age, we now have critical mass of experience in significant CFPB enforcement and advisory matters in a very active area for financial services providers,” Dugan continued.

Prior to entering private legal practice, Mogilnicki served as Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts from 1987 to 1991. During that time, he engaged in trial and appellate practice in federal and Massachusetts courts.

Prior to law school, he served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds. Mogilnicki received his B.A. and J.D. degrees from Yale University.

“Covington presents a wonderful opportunity to build a more substantial CFPB enforcement practice at a key point in the evolution of the agency’s activities,” Mogilnicki said.

“The depth of Covington’s regulatory subject matter expertise, counseling practice, and related enforcement experience is unmatched, and I look forward to helping the firm build its practice further in this area,” he went on to say.