Covington settles SEC suit demanding names of clients affected by data breach

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Covington settles SEC suit demanding names…

Law Firms Covington settles SEC suit demanding names of clients affected by data breach

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 19, 2023, 10:01 am CDT

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Covington & Burling has agreed to turn over to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the names of six corporate clients apparently affected by a data breach. Image from Shutterstock.

Covington & Burling has agreed to turn over to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the names of six corporate clients apparently affected by a data breach, resolving an agency lawsuit that at first sought the names of 298 publicly traded clients.

But the law firm will not turn over the name of a seventh client that, unlike the others, objected to SEC disclosure.

Reuters, Law360 and Law.com have coverage of the Sept. 18 order by U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta of the District of Columbia, which chronicles the deal.

The six client names must be turned over by Sept. 22. Neither the SEC nor Covington will appeal regarding the six clients. The SEC reserves the right, however, to respond “in any appeal brought by the one client that continues to object to the release of its name.”

The SEC said it will take reasonable steps to prevent public disclosure of the six client names.

Mehta had ruled in July that Covington should turn over the names of only seven clients because Covington had determined that they were the only ones that possibly had material, nonpublic information accessed by hackers.

The SEC wanted the client names to determine whether hackers used their material, nonpublic information for illegal trading.

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