In view of the upcoming 2024 presidential election, an interesting topic of discourse has re-emerged: the political leanings within Big Law firms. Empirical research on this question goes as far back as a 2015 paper by experts from highly esteemed institutions: Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Chicago. The conclusion of their research was that lawyers are overall “liberal-leaning,” but more so within the 100 largest firms, or Big Law, in comparison to smaller firms.
Building on this narrative, a new research paper from the University of Notre Dame law professor, Derek Muller, explores this larger question more intricately, by studying the ideological tendencies of large law firms via an examination of their filed US Supreme Court amicus briefs. Muller’s analysis focused on “likely pro bono” client cases spanning from the 2018-2019 term through to the 2021-2022 term, resulting in useful datapoints on the political sway within Big Law.
Highlighting the virtue of pro bono cases, Muller explains that their voluntary nature provides an insight into a firm’s ideology rendered free of pecuniary motivations. Mirroring the 2015 paper’s findings, Muller identified a clear liberal lean within Big Law, with 64% of the analysed 851 pro bono amicus briefs supporting liberal stances, 31% conservative, and 5% indicating no discernable side. Furthermore, when breaking down these cases into three varying degrees of significance, or salience, the indisputably “overwhelming” liberal skew was evident within high-salience cases, with 95% of the Big Law briefs supporting the liberal standpoint.
Among the law firms, the study found Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher atop both the most liberal and conservative amicus brief lists, indicating more about its active Supreme Court practice than its ideology. For instance, of Gibson Dunn briefs, 64% reinforced the liberal viewpoint, which happens to be on par with the figure for Big Law as a whole.
It is also interesting to note that Jones Day, considered by many as leaning conservative due to its previous representation of Donald Trump and its contribution of its lawyers to his administration, falls onto the liberal side of the scale, with 52% of its amicus briefs supporting the liberal position.
However, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of using pro bono work as a measure of a firm’s ideology. Most of their work aims at protecting the interests of wealthy and powerful corporations and individuals, and that is categorised as “conservative” or biased towards maintaining the status quo. Therefore, while large law firms lean blue, at the end of the day, the ruling colour within Big Law seems to be green.
For further reading on Big Law ideologies, check the research paper by Derek Muller, and further analysis by David Lat can be found on his own ‘Original Jurisdiction’.