Legal News

Obama?s Charm Offensive Winning Over D.C. Lawyers

By Dan Slater

The reality is that I served in that first Clinton administration, and I owe them a great deal. But at the end of the day, what was critical for me was what’s most important for my country and my party. And I really thought that Barack would be a superior president. — Eric Holder, litigation partner at Covington & Burling and former deputy AG in Clinton administration

For Washington’s elite lawyers, a coveted demographic in any presidential race, old loyalties are dying hard. Two prominent D.C. lawyers — Covington’s Holder and Williams & Connolly’s Gregory Craig — both former Clintonites, have shifted either part or all of their allegiance to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Here’s the report from the Legal Times, which also mentions scores of other D.C.-area lawyers.

Holder is Obama’s national campaign co-chairman, while Craig, an assistant to the president and special counsel in the Clinton White House, is an Obama foreign policy adviser. In addition, Bryan Cave’s Broderick Johnson, Clinton’s liaison to the House of Representatives, is an informal political adviser.

According to the Legal Times report, Obama’s charm offensive in Washington has helped him garner a slice of the D.C. lawyer constituency that many thought was destined for Hillary’s camp. In addition to wooing Holder and Craig, lawyers from D.C. firms, says the Legal Times, have split their contributions, totalling about $1.5 million, 50/50 between Clinton and Obama. For Clinton, the top givers have been lawyers and staff at Patton Boggs ($94,000), at Hogan & Hartson ($92,000), and at Steptoe & Johnson ($77,000). For Obama, the biggest donors have been lawyers and staff at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr ($119,000), at Williams & Connolly ($88,000), and at Hogan & Hartson ($62,000).

Nationally, Obama’s pulled down $11 million from lawyers, while Clinton has taken in $13 million from the bar, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In other lawyers-endorsing-Obama news, Pepperdine law prof Douglas Kmiec, a Republican and lawyer in the Reagan and Bush I administrations, has endorsed the Illinois senator. Click here for Kmiec’s endorsement, courtesy of Slate.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).