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Donations from lawyers sometimes spell trouble
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Contributions from lawyers and law firms make up a significant source of funding for candidates seeking the White House, but the money sometimes comes with more headaches than it might be worth.
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Contributions from lawyers and law firms make up a significant source of funding for candidates seeking the White House, but the money sometimes comes with more headaches than it might be worth.
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards — himself a former trial lawyer — is having to get rid of $4,600 in contributions received from William Lerach, the securities lawsuit lawyer who pleaded guilty in a federal kickback investigation earlier this week.
Edwards is giving that money to charity. But Edwards hasn’t said yet what he will do with the $81,000 in contributions he received from other members of Lerach’s firm, contributions that were “bundled” or solicited by Lerach. Edwards may also have to decide what to do with contributions received from members of Lerach’s family.
A related problem for Edwards is what he will do, if anything, with the $2,000 contribution he received in 2004 from Melvyn Weiss, head of the Milberg Weiss law firm at the heart of the federal investigation that snared Lerach.
Weiss’ firm said Wednesday it expected him to be named in a new indictment as part of the federal investigation that last year saw a 20-count indictment filed against the firm and several of its named partners. Weiss was widely reported to be the unnamed “Partner A” or “Partner B” in that indictment.
Weiss has long been a prolific donor to Democratic office-holders and seekers, as well as to the party’s major campaign groups like the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Recipients of his nearly $621,000 in personal contributions during the past decade, according to OpenSecrets.org, have included Sens. Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer of New York, senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Weiss gave $215,000 to the DNC between 1994 and 1996 and, more recently, $26,700 to the DSCC for the 2006 campaign.
It should also be noted that an OpenSecrets.org listing of the top five states’ donations topresidential candidates ranked as follows: California and New York, with contributions at $20 million each; Texas, with $8 million; Florida, with $7 million; and Illinois, $6 million.
Three of these states — Texas, Florida and Illinois — met the criteria for listing on the most recent of American Tort Reform Association’s yearly compilation of Judicial Hellholes.
Between them, William Lerach and Melvyn Weiss gave more than $2 million in political contributions during the past decade at the federal level, virtually all of it going to Democratic officials, candidates and organizations. Lerach entered into a plea bargain earlier this week admitting guilt in an $11 million kickback scheme the Justice Department said involved more than 150 cases. Weiss’ firm also released a statement saying it expects him to be indicted in the same investigation.
"Lawyers Gone Wild" is a series of special reports by The Examiner looking at the cost and consequences of class action lawsuit abuse in the United States. Read the latest articles in the series.
Kings of influence dethroned
Selected contributions by William Lerach*
Democratic National Committee: $525,000
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: $9,525
Edward Kennedy for Senate: $8,000
John Edwards for President: $4,600
Friends of Hillary Clinton: $3,100
Biden for President: $2,700
Gephardt for President: $2,000
Selected contributions by Melvyn Weiss*
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: $39,575
DNC Services Corp.: $5,000
Rep. Charles Rangel: $4,600
Sen. Hillary Clinton: $4,174
Sen. Bill Nelson: $4,140
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: $3,500
Sen. John Edwards: $2,000
Sen. Barack Obama: $1,000
* Donations between 2002–07
Source: OpenSecrets.org/FEC data
Comments from Examiner Readers
2:21 PM MST on Sat., Aug. 23, 2008 re: "Donations from lawyers sometimes spell trouble"
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Nancy Wallace said:
Joe Biden loves Lawyers and Lawsuits and keeping the poor in bankrupcty. Biden supports birds of prey, they prey on the weak.
1 agree | 0 disagree
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Lawsuit Victim said:
Biden has turned this country into a million lawsuits. Biden lawsuits, biden lawsuits, biden lawsuits, biden lawsuits, biden lawsuits Biden costs all american money, to line lawyers pockets. This has killed jobs
1 agree | 0 disagree
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Joe said:
Hillary Clinton is only honest when she gets caught, and then, not always.
11 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
My attorney did not to help my case against a city in RI, no investigation, no interviews, no discovery.How do I sue him for not doing the job I hired him to do? Swansong
8 agree | 9 disagree
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Steve White said:
I'm glad to read this series, but I also think there should be a lot more attention paid, not to how big companies get screwed over by the legal system, but how normal people without big money get abused in civil lawsuits, divorce cases, child custody, etc. The Constitution says you have a right to represent yourself in court, maybe the courts should facilitate that, rather than trying to make it hard.
173 agree | 167 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why is the Judicial Hellholes report making such a big deal about a quote that is from a book that was 8 years old at the time of the report? Why are you making such a big deal about that quote, and why do you seem to be blindly relying on a report that so blatantly misuses and misunderstands the quote?
168 agree | 180 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
So this Judicial Hellholes report seems to be where you got the Judge Neely quote, and they do the same thing with it. They ignore the fact that Neely's book supports at least some of their points, and twist the quote to support their cause. This tells me that maybe the Judicial Hellholes report that you seem to have fallen in love with is probably not very accurate or reliable.
192 agree | 157 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Your quote from Judge Neely is ridiculous. It is totally out of context. It was taken from a 1998 book in which he argues that product liability law has gotten out of hand and that state courts are helping home state plaintiffs at the expense of out state companies. His book is, at least partially and most likely more honestly, arguing your point. But you feel compelled to quote him out of context, to argue a point that is the opposite of his book's conclusion. He actually calls for the US Supreme Court to step in and review state court decisions to make sure they are fair to out of state companies. I sure hope this was an honest mistake by you, Ms. Chumley.
160 agree | 154 disagree
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not me said:
this article is so insanely one-sided. for example, what of all the money that defense firms give to judges who they think will help them?
176 agree | 179 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Say it isn't so. Trial lawyers convicted of crimes contributing to Democrat candidates and Democrat causes. Here I though that the Democrat controlled Congress (the opposite of Progress) was going to fix all of that!!!! No wonder Congress has half the approval ratings of the President.
191 agree | 204 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
It is difficult to determine how reasonable these fees are without knowing more about the amount of work required to achieve these settements and the amount of risk taken by these lawyers. In general, the amounts seem high, but aren't these fees the result of contracts negotiated between the lawyers and their clients? If the governrment starts putting caps on these fees, will it then try to cap the salaries and binuses paid to corporate CEOs?
185 agree | 224 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Nice series of stories. OK, I can see that these lawyers and law firms are making obscene amounts of money off of suits and settlements. But what about the problem of lead paint, even if it was painted decades ago? If it's hurting people, shouldn't it be cleaned up? So how can we protect citizens and prevent abuse at the same time?
245 agree | 223 disagree
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