Law360's ongoing analysis of Federal Election Commission filings revealed that many contenders spent top dollar on lawyers in the 2020 election season. And amid a global pandemic, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden prepped for an Election Day unlike any other, consistently calling on the assistance of top-tier legal counsel.
Presidential campaign spending on outside counsel was already on the rise even before this election season, and it has spiked dramatically over the past two election cycles.
In 2016, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton headed into the November elections with legal bill tallies that dwarfed those paid out by the top two contenders for the White House in 2012 and 2008.
This election cycle, the combined spending by the two top presidential candidates on legal needs has dramatically outpaced 2016's record levels. Much of the increase is linked to President Donald Trump, likely as a result of his ongoing legal turmoil.
While Trump tapped Jones Day for much of his campaign-related legal spend, Biden's campaign relied on Covington & Burling LLP.
Presidential campaigns are required to disclose their expenditures in regular filings with the FEC that list the amount, the service provider and general nature of their expenses.
While the FEC filings aren't required to describe in detail exactly what "legal services" are being provided, national campaigns are massive enterprises with legal needs similar to those of a corporation, but one that springs up overnight and operates in the constant glare of the media spotlight.
In other words, a lot of legal questions come up.
Here, Law360 tracks the candidates' legal bills and law firms they've tapped for trusted legal counsel from 2019 through 2020. This guide was updated monthly in 2020 as candidates filed their required disclosures with the FEC.
Click to view interactive version
--Editing by Pamela Wilkinson.
Methodology: Law360 collected data on legal spending from monthly, quarterly and pre-general and post-general Federal Election Commission filings for the committees of each presidential candidate for the 2020 primary and general election cycle. Law360's analysis includes any expenditures marked for a "legal" purpose. Totals include legal spending reported from Jan. 1, 2019 through the post-general election filing of the committee in 2020.
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