The Big Law Ledger: Comparing 83 Firms' Political Contributions in 2020 and 2024 – Legalytics | Adam Feldman

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In May 2024, the National Law Journal asked a simple question: which Big Law lawyers were donating to Trump and Biden?
The question captured a familiar assumption about elite law firms. Big Law is often treated as a Democratic-leaning professional world, especially in presidential cycles and especially among lawyers in major legal markets. But the more interesting question is how strong that tilt is, how it varies across firms, and how the 2024 cycle compared with 2020.
OpenSecrets’ broader lawyers-and-law-firms category shows the scale of the phenomenon. In the 2024 cycle, total contributions in that category exceeded $313 million. The category gave about $223.7 million to Democrats and about $55.3 million to Republicans, or roughly 79% Democratic and 20% Republican among party-coded contributions. The 2022 cycle was also heavily Democratic, with about $184.2 million in total contributions and a Democratic share just under 78%.
The top contributors in the broader category show why the aggregate picture needs firm-level analysis. Dan Newlin Injury Attorneys gave more than $6.2 million, much of it to conservative groups. Kirkland & Ellis gave about $5.2 million and was almost evenly split between Democratic and Republican party-coded giving. Sullivan & Cromwell gave mostly to Democrats but also more than $1 million to Republicans. Paul Weiss and Quinn Emanuel were much more Democratic. These are not minor differences inside a uniform industry category. They are different political profiles.
This article narrows the lens to major law firms. The analysis uses OpenSecrets data for 83 firms matched to organization pages and captured across four OpenSecrets categories: summary, totals, recipients, and congressional committees. It builds on work from others including Derek Muller and Bonica, Sen, and Chilton. The focus here is the presidential-cycle comparison between 2020 and 2024. The core measures are total giving, Democratic giving, Republican giving, two-party party share, individual giving, PAC giving, and the change in each firm’s Democratic share from 2020 to 2024. Recipient-level and committee-level patterns will be addressed in the next article.
The firms covered are:
Akin Gump; Allen & Overy / A&O Shearman; Alston & Bird; Arnold & Porter; Baker Botts; Baker McKenzie; Ballard Spahr; Barnes & Thornburg; Blank Rome; Bracewell; Brown Rudnick; Cadwalader; Cleary Gottlieb; Clifford Chance; Cooley; Covington & Burling; Cozen O’Connor; Cravath; Davis Polk; Debevoise & Plimpton; Dechert; DLA Piper; Dorsey & Whitney; Duane Morris; Eversheds Sutherland; Faegre Drinker; Foley & Lardner; Fox Rothschild; Fragomen; Fried Frank; Gibson Dunn; Goodwin; Greenberg Traurig; Hogan Lovells; Holland & Knight; Honigman; Hunton Andrews Kurth; Husch Blackwell; Jackson Lewis; Jones Day; K&L Gates; Katten; King & Spalding; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Littler Mendelson; Loeb & Loeb; Mayer Brown; McDermott Will & Schulte; McGuireWoods; Milbank; Mintz; Morgan Lewis; Morrison & Foerster; Nelson Mullins; Nixon Peabody; Norton Rose Fulbright; Ogletree Deakins; Orrick; Paul Hastings; Paul Weiss; Perkins Coie; Pillsbury Winthrop; Polsinelli; Proskauer Rose; Quinn Emanuel; Reed Smith; Ropes & Gray; Seyfarth Shaw; Sheppard Mullin; Shook Hardy & Bacon; Sidley Austin; Simpson Thacher; Skadden; Squire Patton Boggs; Sullivan & Cromwell; Troutman Pepper; Vinson & Elkins; Wachtell Lipton; Weil Gotshal; White & Case; Williams & Connolly; Willkie Farr; Wilson Sonsini; WilmerHale; and Winston & Strawn.
The 2024 cycle was smaller than 2020
The first major difference between the two presidential cycles is scale. Across firms with data in both cycles, total giving fell from approximately $94.45 million in 2020 to $81.01 million in 2024. That is a decline of about 14%.

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