The presidential election season is in full swing, and lawyers have been among the most active participants in the political process, at least financially speaking.
Barack Obama has benefitted the most from lawyers’ largesse, earning nearly $12.4 million in contributions from attorneys and law firms in June. In fact, lawyers and law firms are the president’s second largest donors by industry, and six of his top 20 contributors by organization are law firms: DLA Piper, Sidley Austin, Skadden Arps, Morgan & Morgan, WilmerHale and Kirkland & Ellis.
Attorneys aren’t just donating their own cash to the Democratic cause. After reaching their individual contribution limits, lawyers and their firms have continued to solicit, or “bundle,” donations from family, friends and colleagues. The legal sector has bundled $22.4 million for Obama, far outstripping the second-place securities and investments industry, which has bundled $14.5 million.
Lawyers aren’t entirely neglecting the right, either: Almost $5.2 million of Mitt Romney’s campaign cash last month came from lawyers and law firms. And, though Kirkland & Ellis was the only law firm represented among Romney’s top 20 contributors, five of the 25 registered lobbyists bundling money for the GOP candidate work for other major firms.
Read more from the Washington Post.
