Fact check: Which lawyers donated the most to the Democratic Party in 2024?

Executive summary — Who gave the most to Democrats in 2024?

Big‑law lawyers and law‑firm PACs were among the largest legal‑sector donors to Democratic campaigns in 2024, with academic research and reporting showing a heavy tilt toward Democratic committees and candidates. Individual high‑value gifts included at least two $250,000 donations to the Harris Victory Fund (Faiza Saeed and Rodge Cohen) and numerous other large contributions clustered around Kamala Harris’s campaign windows, but comprehensive, ranked lists of the single biggest lawyer donors for the full year are not presented in the available analyses ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

1. Biglaw’s Democratic swing: a numerical picture that jumps off the page

University of Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller’s analysis found that roughly 92% of Biglaw contribution dollars in 2024 flowed to Democratic‑affiliated groups, a roughly 12‑to‑1 advantage over Republicans and a concentration of Democratic support that included firms where 99% or more of employee contributions favored Democrats ^[3]. This research frames the legal industry’s aggregate behavior: not merely many more donors, but the lion’s share of dollars. The study focuses on firm‑level patterns rather than a precise, ranked roster of individual lawyers by dollar amount, meaning the takeaway is clear about sectoral direction but leaves room for granular follow‑up on top individual donors ^{[4] [3]}.

2. High‑dollar individual gifts tied to Harris’s operation — named donors emerge

Reporting during the 2024 campaign window identifies concrete, large gifts from individual lawyers: Cravath’s Faiza Saeed and Sullivan & Cromwell’s Rodge Cohen each gave $250,000 to the Harris Victory Fund, and Paul Weiss partner Brad Karp is reported to have given $25,000 — part of a broader $27 million that lawyers supposedly contributed to Harris between August and September 2024 ^[1]. These data points show substantial individual checks concentrated in short fundraising bursts; they demonstrate how a small set of wealthy lawyers and partners can materially boost a campaign’s short‑term haul ^[1].

3. Rapid early momentum: lawyers’ immediate backing of Harris outpaced rivals

Bloomberg Law reporting showed that in the first ten days of Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign she received $8.3 million from lawyers, outstripping what lawyers had given to former President Trump over the entire contest up to that point ^[2]. This rapid, front‑loaded support underscores both the fundraising power and the political orientation of legal professionals in that period. The figure complements the later reporting of the $27 million two‑month haul, illustrating a sustained, disciplined funding stream into a single Democratic candidacy from the legal community ^{[2] [1]}.

4. Law firm PACs and congressional giving: a parallel channel that skews Democratic

Beyond individual attorneys, law‑firm PACs and bundled firm giving moved millions into congressional races and party committees, with reporting showing over $10 million from firm PACs to congressional contests in 2024 and a broader Democratic tilt ^[5]. OpenSecrets‑style summaries referenced in the analyses note the legal industry’s sizable aggregate contributions to politics, but again do not compile a definitive year‑end ranking of top individual lawyer donors; rather, they place the legal sector among the most financially active political constituencies ^[6].

5. What’s missing and why it matters: gaps in public, comparable rankings

The assembled sources provide firm‑level ratios, short‑window tallies, and named instances of large checks, but they do not deliver a single, comprehensive leaderboard of the highest individual lawyer donors across the entire 2024 cycle. Academic summaries and industry reporting emphasize direction and examples over exhaustive, verified rankings; this scarcity leaves open questions about mid‑sized, repeat donors and in‑kind or PAC channeling that could alter a full ranking ^{[4] [3] [6]}. For a definitive top‑donor list one would need consolidated federal campaign finance filings and PAC reports reconciled with firm disclosure — work the cited pieces summarize but do not fully execute ^{[4] [6]}.

6. Bottom line: a clear tilt, named big checks, and still‑open auditing questions

The evidence establishes that Biglaw and many individual lawyers were major financial backers of Democrats in 2024, with named multi‑hundred‑thousand‑dollar donations to Harris and aggregate analyses showing roughly 92% of Biglaw dollars favoring Democrats ^{[1] [2] [3]}. The reporting provides compelling examples of top individual gifts but stops short of publishing an authoritative, ranked list of the single largest lawyer donors for the full year; that definitive accounting would require systematic aggregation of campaign filings and PAC transfers beyond the scope of the cited analyses ^{[6] [4]}.