Senator Kamala Harris (Photo credit by NOAH BERGER/AFP/Getty Images)
It really shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the Democratic presidential candidate who is running the hardest on their accomplishments as a lawyer is winning in the category of Biglaw donations. Kamala Harris is leaning heavily into her time as a prosecutor — despite some progressives believing her time prosecuting the parents of truant children and then laughing about it is disqualifying — claiming she is the candidate “who is going to be on that debate stage with Donald Trump and defeat him by being able to prosecute the case against four more years.” Sure, there are other Dems in the field who are lawyers — some even spent time in Biglaw themselves — but Harris’s theme of returning to the rule of law appears to be striking a chord in lawyers interested in contributing to a campaign this election season.
As reported by Law.com, Harris has brought in almost $675,000 in donations from folks at Am Law 100 firms with Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Elizabeth Warren also cracking six figures from top law firms:
Between his campaign launch in April and the end of June, Biden, the former vice president and the leading candidate in national polls, raised $575,000 from the 2019 Am Law 100, an annual ranking of firms based on gross revenue. Biden’s haul was about $100,000 less than what Harris pulled in during the first six months of the year, according to a National Law Journal review of campaign contributions.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg brought in more than $450,000 in the first half of the year from those same 100 law firms. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts raised about $125,000 from top law firms, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pulled in more than $30,000.
While Harris’s messaging of law and order is likely appealing to lawyers, her husband has a lot of Biglaw connections, what with him being a Biglaw partner himself (Doug Emhoff is a partner in the Los Angeles office of DLA Piper) — and that helps:
“Her husband, a good friend of mine, is a highly regarded Big Law partner in L.A. So he’s got a good network of his own,” said Daniel Shallman, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Covington & Burling.
And she’s getting money from Biglaw attorneys with a background in political circles:
Her backers include Obama-era Justice Department veterans such as Ronald Machen, who served from 2010 to 2015 as U.S. attorney in Washington. Machen, now a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, contributed $2,800 to the Harris campaign in March.
Harris also received contributions from law firm partners who worked closely with her sister Maya’s husband, Tony West, a former Obama-era associate U.S. attorney general who is now Uber’s general counsel. Jenner & Block partner Thomas Perrelli, who preceded West in the Justice Department’s third-ranking role, donated $2,800 to Harris in February. West’s successor, Stuart Delery, now a Gibson Dunn partner in Washington, gave $1,000 to Harris in March.
This all might be good news for Harris in the short term, but the actual primaries are months away. It remains to be seen if support in Biglaw can translate into a lead in the polls.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).