John Valcoulon LeMoyne Ellicott

Ellicott

John Valcoulon LeMoyne Ellicott

John Valcoulon LeMoyne Ellicott, an expert in international trade matters while working as a partner at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC, died peacefully on January 15, 2024 at his home in Washington, DC. He was 94.



As a trade lawyer, Mr. Ellicott spent more than 30 years dealing with a wide variety of foreign trade controls issues, including export controls, economic sanctions, and measures to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.



His earlier practice focused on communications law, taxation, corporate transactions, and securities law. Mr. Ellicott also wrote and lectured extensively.



Mr. Ellicott was among experts selected by the National Academy of Sciences to advise Congress on export control reform. He also served as first chairman of the Export Controls and Economic Sanctions Committee of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association.



At Covington & Burling, Mr. Ellicott mentored associates and younger partners and worked to promote the careers of women and minorities. He joined the firm as an associate in 1958 and became a partner in 1965. From 1986 to 1990, he chaired the firm's management committee. Before joining Covington, he served in the U.S. Navy's Office of the Judge Advocate General from 1954 to 1958.



Charles Miller, who served with Mr. Ellicott on Covington & Burling's management committee, described him as "a gracious and thoughtful leader whose decisions as chairman reflected his deep commitment to the highest values of the legal profession, and to the collaborative culture that defines Covington."



In his private life, Mr. Ellicott was an avid bicyclist and tennis player into his 80s. He commuted by bicycle to work, and at 89 biked with his son and daughter on a four-day trip along the Great Allegheny Passage. While at Covington & Burling, he founded a biking club, C&B Wheels. He also enjoyed wilderness hiking and skiing.



Mr. Ellicott was descended from the founders of Ellicott City, MD and from the uncle of surveyor Andrew Ellicott, hired by George Washington in 1790 to survey the boundaries of what would become Washington, DC.



He was the son of Dr. Valcoulon LeMoyne Ellicott and Mary Purnell Gould Ellicott of Baltimore, MD.



Mr. Ellicott graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1951 with a degree in economics and received his law degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1954. He was valedictorian of his high school class at Landon School in Bethesda, Md., graduating in 1947.



Mr. Ellicott was a trustee of Landon School and chairman of the Governing Board of National Cathedral School. He is a former trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia and served for many years as the foundation's general counsel. Mr. Ellicott also was a member of the congregation at St. Alban's Church and an active member of the Cosmos Club.



He was married to his first wife, Mary Lou Ulery Ellicott, for 40 years. Following her death, he married Beatrice Berle Meyerson in 1996.



He is survived by a brother, Don Ellicott; a sister, Joy Jones; and by his wife; his daughter, Annie Ellicott; his son, Val Ellicott (married to Celeste Sole); three stepsons, Dean Winston Meyerson Jr., Frederick Adolf Berle Meyerson (married to Laura), and Christopher Cortlandt Meyerson (married to Megumi); and five step-grandsons.



A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.