Mr. Eizenstat heads the firm’s international practice. His work at Covington focuses on international business transactions and regulations and on resolving international trade problems. Mr. Eizenstat also has practiced law for twenty years in Atlanta and Washington.
He has held a number of key positions during his decade and a half of government service. From 1977 to 1981 he was President Jimmy Carter’s Chief Domestic Policy Adviser and Executive Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff. In the Clinton Administration he was Deputy Treasury Secretary, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs and Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. He was Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996. He received the highest departmental awards for his service from Secretary of State Christopher, Secretary of State Albright, and Secretary of the Treasury Summers.
During the Clinton Administration, he had a prominent role in the development of key international initiatives, including the negotiation of the Transatlantic Agenda with the European Union (establishing the framework for the United States’ relationship with the EU); the development of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue among European and U.S. CEOs; the negotiation of agreements with the European Union regarding the Helms-Burton Act and the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act; the negotiation of the Japan Port Agreement; and the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. He acted as the Administration’s lead official in anti-money laundering initiatives.
Mr. Eizenstat also was the Administration’s leader on Holocaust-era issues as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State, and successfully helped negotiate major agreements with the Swiss, Germans, Austrians, and French. The renewal of interest in World War II-era issues owes much to his efforts. He has published a book on these events, "Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor and the Unfinished Business of World War II," which has been favorably received in publications like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Business Week, and Publisher's Weekly. It has been translated into German and French.
For his work and his other accomplishments he has received the Courage and Conscience Award from the Israeli government, the Knight Commander's Cross (Badge and Star) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the French Legion of Honor from the Government of France. He is also featured in The Best Lawyers in America 2007 for government relations and international trade and finance law.
He received his J.D. from Harvard University in 1967. He served as a law clerk for the Honorable Newell Edenfield of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Prior to entering law school, he earned an A.B., cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is married to Frances Eizenstat, and has two sons and four grandchildren.
