John Rupp

John P. Rupp is a managing partner of Covington and Burling's London office. Rupp has worked for the firm for over 30 years.

Working for the Tobacco Industry
He served on the Tobacco Institute Communications Committee, and has long worked for the tobacco industry law firm of Covington & Burling. Rupp managed the industry's scientific and regulatory responses to secondhand smoke issues, including the clandestine International ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) Consultants Project. Rupp was responsible for coordinating the selection and use of scientists to refute the ETS issue. (Philip Morris International's Introduction to Privilege Log and Glossary of Names, Estate of Burl Butler v. PMI, et al, April 19, 1996) Rupp was an attendee at Philip Morris' Operation Downunder Conference held June 24-26, 1987 at Hilton Head, North Carolina to determine the company's comprehensive response to the onslaught of public concern about secondhand tobacco smoke.

Rupp helped advance the activities of the Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR), a tobacco industry front group that generated research designed to help the industry resist smoking restrictions worldwide. 

Other Experience
Rupp's biographical note states that he was Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States between 1974 and 1977. With Covington and Burling he has "specialized in commercial litigation, including arbitration." "He also has substantial experience structuring and undertaking internal investigations involving trade control issues, bribery, accounting irregularities, and pharmaceutical marketing issues. For a number of the firm’s clients, Mr. Rupp has served as coordinating counsel in disputes arising simultaneously in multiple countries – in particular, countries in Western and Eastern Europe," his biographical note states.

On his C.V. he lists having handled "representation of several clients in connection with litigation in Iceland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom challenging sector specific marketing restrictions."

Other Sourcewatch Resources

 * Tobacco industry

Contact details
Covington & Burling LLP 265 Strand London WC2R 1BH England Tel: 44.(0)20.7067.2009 Email: jrupp At cov.com