Lawyers and law firm staff members continue to be among the top political campaign donors, but which party is taking home the most cash from Biglaw firms? According to new research from Professor Derek Muller of the University of Notre Dame Law School, those who work at large law firms leaned even further to the left than they had in the past. That leads us to our next question: Which Biglaw firms had the highest percentage of contributions to Democratic campaigns?
Before we get to that ranking, Muller supplies the all-in totals at his blog, Excess of Democracy:
All told, I captured about $52 million in contributions to Democratic-affiliated groups compared to about $4 million for Republican-affiliated groups in 2023-2024. 92.45% of contributions went to Democrats, about a 12-to-1 ratio, up from the 6-to-1 ratio back in 2020.
As Muller told Bloomberg Law, “This represents a pretty significant shift to the left.”
Now, without further ado, these are the top 10 Biglaw firms that had the highest percentage of contributions to Democratic campaigns:
- Proskauer Rose (100%)
- Susman Godfrey (100%)
- Fenwick & West (99.8%)
- Schulte Roth & Zabel (99.8%)
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton (99.7%)
- Steptoe (99.7%)
- Cozen O’Connor (99.7%)
- Crowell & Moring (99.5%)
- Perkins Coie (99.4%)
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson (99.4%)
Click here to see the rest of the ranking.
Given the way that the legal profession and the rule of law have been threatened under the Trump II reign, will lawyers and law firm staff be able to push their Democratic loyalties to the max?
“It would be hard to get farther to the left,” Mueller said.
Ranking the most liberal and conservative law firms among the top 150, 2025 edition [Excess of Democracy]
Big Law Leans Left—and Is Moving Further Left, Research Shows [Bloomberg Law]
Which law firms are most conservative and most liberal? See the ranking [ABA Journal]
Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
