Covert was both a businessman and a businessman's lawyer. He was highly respected as a corporate lawyer and exercised more power and influence in the business world than many businessmen. In his time, Covert was recognized as one of Canada's top 100 bank directors and was a senior director of the Royal Bank. He was a leading figure in the Canadian business establishment. In the field of industrial relations, which he introduced and made his own, Covert was a pioneer.

He 'sold' the idea of trade unions to skeptical tycoons and for thirty years personally negotiated collective agreements on behalf of management, even occasionally accepting unions as clients. Covert's business clients included the leading industrial and commercial entrepreneurs in Atlantic Canada. So valued was his counsel that he served as a director of many regional and national companies, such as Sun Life, and also as president or vice-president. Among the more than 50 corporate boards on which he served were Bowater Mersey Paper, Canadian Petrofina, Eastern Telephone and Telegraph, Maritime Paper Products, Molson Companies, Montreal Trust, National Sea Products (High Liner Foods Inc.), Nova Scotia Light & Power, Phoenix Assurance and Royal Bank.

Widely regarded as a war hero, Covert joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1942 and served as Flying Officer and Navigator in the Second World War. He was a brilliant and highly competitive bridge player. Following the war, he authored a book on bridge, discussing strategies and tactics for competent players. He enjoyed the game of golf and was an active gardener.

He graduated from Dalhousie University in 1929 at the top of his class as a gold medalist. He served on the Dalhousie Board of Governors and remained an active alumnus for most of his life. He began a close association with the Roman Catholic Order of the Sisters of Charity in 1953 and did more work for this charitable organization than any other.

If Frank Covert was Nova Scotia's Mr. Lawyer, then it was because he was also Atlantic Canada's Mr. Businessman and Mr. Financier. He recognized that law - especially company, securities and income tax law - was of supreme importance for business development. He was more "corporate captain" than "corporate navigator" - a lawyer whom big businessmen trusted so completely that they not only depended on his legal and financial advice, but invited him to organize or even run their companies. Frank Manning Covert was himself, in Peter Newman's phrase, one of Canada's biggest big businessmen; one of the greats in whom the flame of power burned very brightly.

Frank Manning Covert, along with Hector Jacques and Laurie Stevens, was inducted into the Nova Scotia Business Hall of Fame in June 2001.