Photo of Allan Topol

Allan Topol is a resident in the firm’s Washington office.  While practicing law with Covington, he has written ten novels of international intrigue and numerous articles dealing with foreign policy issues in The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Military.com.

Mr. Topol’s law practice has involved extensive civil and criminal litigation, with an emphasis on water, air and major hazardous waste enforcement cases, as well as international environmental law and toxic torts.  He has also advised clients on many of these environmental issues assisting them in dealing with immediate problems as well as developing long term strategies.

The next few years will be difficult for Latin American countries.  Low petroleum and commodity prices are adversely affecting the economies of the region.  At the same time, there is increased pressure on the governments for economic and social reforms.

Colombia, which has had a strong economy, recently passing Argentina as the third largest in

Iranian jets struck ISIL targets in Iraq, according to a senior U.S. defense official.  What makes this report so bizarre is that it means the Iranians are working toward the same objective, destruction of ISIL, as their avowed enemy, the Great Satan, according to Iran’s Supreme Leader.  Here is one more indication that companies doing

GlobalPolicyWatch (GPW) interviewed former Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and former Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) about the election and its likely aftermath.

GPW:  Senator Kyl, what do you think the primary objectives will be of the Republican leadership in the new Congress?

Senator Kyl:  Both Senator McConnell and Congressman Boehner will want to return to the

Members of Covington & Burling’s Public Policy and Government Affairs Practice Group were in Mexico last week for the 12th annual Mexico Business Summit, which convened heads of state and business leaders from around the world to engage in discussions about Mexico’s future economic development and tapping into Mexico’s new sources of growth.  Over

The second round of the Brazilian Presidential election coming on October 26 will be decided between incumbent Dilma Rousseff from the left leaning PT (Workers Party) and the challenger Aécio Neves from the centrist PSDB (Brazilian Social Democracy Party).  The stakes are huge for the country and for companies doing business in Brazil. 

Not so

In view of the importance of privacy issues to readers of GlobalPolicyWatch,  we have reprinted below a blog post by Morgan Kennedy from Covington’s Washington office  which appeared on the Covington InsidePrivacy blog on September 12.

*   *   *

Forever 21 Faces Point-of-Sale Data Collection Class Action Lawsuit

Fast fashion retailer Forever 21 Retail Inc.

While members of Congress, the news media, and the American public debate the merits of President Obama’s new strategy to confront ISIS in the Middle East, Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, participated in a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday on this topic.  Kaitlyn McClure of Covington’s

Companies doing business in Eastern Europe are likely to face an uncertain political climate in the near future.  Part of this is the fallout from the Russian Ukraine controversy.  Another factor is the residual effects of the 2008 economic collapse and the inability of economies to recover.  A third is political growing pains accompanying the

The Washington Post yesterday quoted Covington’s Rob Kelner in a front page article about the Supreme Court’s recent decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. From the Post, “Even though the additional millions flowing to candidates and parties ‘is real money, in the grand scheme of our campaign finance system, it’s background noise,’ said