Welcome back to the Big Law Business column on the changing legal marketplace written by me, Roy Strom. Today, we look at a bubbling mystery: Why lawyers’ political contributions declined this cycle. Sign up to receive this column in your Inbox on Thursday mornings.
Lawyers don’t like the candidates? Or what’s going on?
Political contributions by lawyers and law firm employees are down more than 30% since the last midterm elections. Lawyers haven’t given this little since 2010. The profession is on track to match its 2006 level of giving, when Dennis Hastert was speaker.
Lawyers’ tight wallets come as total midterm spending is projected to hit a record $9.3 billion, the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit group that tracks campaign giving on OpenSecrets.org, said in September. The previous record, $7.1 billion, was set in 2018.
The drop-off in lawyers’ giving has baffled experts.
“No matter how you slice it, their prominence in the campaign finance landscape has gone down,” said Andrew Mayersohn, committees researcher at OpenSecrets.org.
The largest declines among Big Law firms came at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Gibson Dunn & Crutcher; and Sidley Austin—down by 62%, 47% and 34%, respectively, OpenSecrets data show.
So far this cycle, Skadden’s lawyers and staff contributed less than $400,000, their lowest amount since 1998, according to OpenSecrets.
That’s down sharply from the roughly $1 million they contributed for the 2018 midterms.
Only a...
A whistleblower that received a share of the US government’s $150 million False Claims Act settlement with Walgreen Co. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. couldn’t convince a federal court to rule ...