Covington & Burling offices in Washington. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Covington & Burling attorney Richard Hertling, a lobbyist who's advocated for some of the country's biggest companies, was nominated Thursday for a seat on the U.S. Federal Claims Court, where he would oversee big-dollar government contract disputes and other cases against the United States.

Hertling joined Covington's public policy and government affairs practice in 2013. Before his hiring, Hertling had been a longtime congressional staffer. From 2003 to 2007, he worked at the Justice Department, serving as acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legislative Affairs and principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy.

Hertling declined to comment on his nomination.

At Covington, Hertling's lobbying clients included Microsoft, the Motion Picture Association of America, Qualcomm Inc. and the National Association of Broadcasters, according to disclosure filings. Until earlier this year, he had also lobbied on behalf of Georgetown University for an “extension of of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program,” the Obama administration's policy for allowing certain immigrants to be protected from deportation.

For Microsoft, his recent lobbying work has addressed immigration visas for high-skilled workers and corporate tax reform, according to a disclosure filed earlier this month. In the first three months of this year, he lobbied for Qualcomm on patent reform and intellectual property issues. He also lobbied on intellectual property issues for the Motion Picture Association of America, the top lobbyist for the film industry, according to a recent disclosure filing.

Following his stint at the Justice Department, Hertling advised U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson's presidential campaign before he returned to Capitol Hill, where he rose to become chief counsel of the House Judiciary Committee.

His arrival at Covington came on the heels of the firm hiring former Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl and former Democratic U.S. Rep. Howard Berman. Hertling, of counsel at the firm, was described by Dan Bryant, the leader of Covington's global public policy practice at the time, as a “workhorse with as wide and deep a grasp of policy issues as anyone in Washington—on issues that matter a lot to our clients and the business community.”

Hertling's nomination comes two weeks after Covington tax partner Emin Toro was picked for a slot on the U.S. Tax Court. Another partner, Andrew Smith, is in line to become the director of the Federal Trade Commission's consumer protection bureau. Smith, who served from 2001 to 2005 as an assistant to the director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau, is expected to take over the bureau in May, Bloomberg BNA reported this month. The bureau director position does not require Senate confirmation.

Another President Donald Trump nominee to the Federal Claims court, Maureen Ohlhausen, is pending in the Senate. Ohlhausen would make the jump from the FTC, where she has been the interim chairwoman since early last year. Trump nominated Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison partner Joe Simons to lead the agency.

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