Seven partners from Covington & Burling and Mayer Brown are countering Washington’s move against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance that is forcing the social media platform to be sold or face a ban.
Partners of the two law firms submitted a petition to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of TikTok and ByteDance.
The social media platform accused Washington of violating the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which upholds freedom of speech, according to the petition, and has requested the court to prohibit enforcement of the ban.
The petition stated: “The act will force a shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025, silencing the 170 million Americans who use the platform to communicate in ways that cannot be replicated elsewhere.”
Covington’s consultation team is being led by John Hall, the firm’s global litigation practice chairman, and Alexander Berengaut and Megan Crowley, co-chairs of the government litigation practice group.
All three of them have previously represented Xiaomi Corporation in 2021, successfully challenging the US Department of Defence for blacklisting the smartphone maker as a Communist Chinese military company. The list bars American investors from buying Xiaomi’s shares.
Litigators David Zionts and Anders Linderot are also on Covington’s team. Mayer Brown’s Andrew Pincus and Avi Kupfer also advised the social media platform.
The lawsuit arose as US President Joe Biden signed a law on 24 April that would outlaw TikTok unless ByteDance sells it within 270 days. Two days later, the social media platform announced that its general counsel, Erich Andersen, will step down in June this year to take on the role of special counsel. His sole focus will be on helping TikTok overturn Washington’s ban.
