The financing of modern American politics is equal parts law and strategy.  A web of federal campaign finance and nonprofit regulations, and state and local campaign finance laws, restrict the sources, amounts and timing of certain types of transactions—especially contributions to support candidates, and political expenditures by corporations.

We represent candidates, political parties, PACs, Super PACs and politically-active nonprofit organizations, as well as individual and organizational donors.  We help our clients understand the opportunities and limitations of campaign finance and nonprofit tax laws, and advise them on permissible and prohibited activities.  We clear transactions, approve ads and solicitations, and track and benchmark political giving and spending.  And we develop financing strategies—structuring activities across multiple entities, when necessary—to ensure the most optimal and efficient use of all the funds that are available to support a candidate or cause.

Just as the rules of any contest inform the contestants’ approaches and direct the contest’s outcome, so too do the rules of our elections shape our politics and the process by which we choose our leaders and representatives.  And in this current electoral environment—closely and deeply divided—election law and practice are more important than ever before.

We are some of the country’s most experienced and sought-after election lawyers, representing candidates and party committees in matters ranging from ballot access, to daily operations and compliance, to the defense of complaints and enforcement proceedings.  We have particular experience helping clients prepare to win close elections, and representing them in recounts and other high-stakes post-election proceedings.

Lobbying laws today are drawn so broadly that they sweep up not only traditional lobbyists who ask government officials to support or oppose legislation or regulation, but also employees and consultants who merely provide information and technical analysis to those officials, as well as employees who sell products and services to government agencies, and even public affairs and PR consultants who have no interaction with government officials whatsoever.

We assess our clients’ positions against lobbyist registration thresholds and determine whether and who they must register as lobbyists.  We help our clients manage the implications of lobbyist registration, which include regular reporting, adherence with strict limits on gifts and other things of value provided to government officials, and prohibitions on the timing and amounts of certain political contributions as well as the compensation of their lobbyists contingent upon the outcome of government decisions and actions.

Public corruption is the number one domestic law enforcement priority of the U.S. Department of Justice.  And with good reason, because corrupt government officials forfeit the public trust that is the source spring of their legal authority, and therefore cannot be part of a government of, by and for the people.  To guard the integrity of our government, laws at the federal, state and local level limit the sources and amounts of gifts and other things of value that government officials can receive, require public reports of the things they do receive, mandate disclosure of negotiations for private sector employment and limit the post-government activities of former government officials.

We develop corporate policies, training programs and compliance and reporting systems for clients who are interacting with government officials across the country—to ensure that their employees and consultants adhere to the letter of laws that vary widely from the federal level to the state level, and from state to state, and avoid even the appearance of impropriety.