LAWYER
2012 Election Cycle
Total Donated
$2,658,810
Contributions
2,967
Unique Donors
807
Donors who listed Lawyer as the employer or occupation string account for $3,740,574 in itemized individual contributions in the 2012 FEC cycle. The slice includes 3,820 contributions from 978 donors. The grouping’s all-cycle total is $59,115,033, so 2012 is 6.3% of that roll. Lawyer is a job label on a receipt, not a bar-association census and not a law-firm PAC.
Key figures
- $3,740,574 tagged Lawyer in the 2012 FEC cycle.
- 3,820 contributions from 978 donors; about $979 per contribution.
- 2012 is 6.3% of the grouping’s $59,115,033 all-cycle total.
- Occupation string, not a law-firm PAC or bar census.
- Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates.
How a job title meets a presidential cycle
FEC schedules ask for occupation and employer. Many attorneys type Lawyer, Attorney, or a firm name. This grouping collects the Lawyer-style strings. Intersecting that collection with 2012 produces $3,740,574, 3,820 lines, and 978 donor keys. The presidential calendar is why contribution counts run high; it is not a finding about which ticket lawyers preferred.
Average receipt size is about $979 ($3,740,574 ÷ 3,820). Average per donor is about $3,825. Lines per donor average about 3.9. Those ratios look like many people giving several itemized gifts in a busy cycle. They are not average partner compensation and not a poll of the American Bar Association.
Law-firm culture, partner tracks, and bar-association politics are not in the packet. What is in the packet is a job-label key: Lawyer × 2012 = $3,740,574 on 3,820 lines from 978 donors, which is 6.3% of $59,115,033. A partner who listed the firm’s name is probably not in the 978. An associate who listed Lawyer probably is. Public defenders, in-house counsel, and retired attorneys can all appear. The 978-key count is a filing-string count, not a census of the profession in a presidential year.
978 donors are not “the legal industry”
People who wrote a firm name (Skadden, a county public defender’s office, a solo LLC) often sit in other industry keys. This cell is the leftover-and-literal Lawyer string. Combining it with firm-named rows would double-count some households and still miss others. The tie keeps the string honest.
Unitemized gifts, IOLTA-adjacent confusion, and state judicial races are outside FEC individual totals. 978 is the count of itemized federal donor keys in 2012 for this grouping, not the number of licensed lawyers in the United States.
Full analysis: Lawyer political money in the 2012 election cycle →
Questions
- How much did Lawyer-tagged donors give in 2012?
- The join records $3,740,574 in itemized individual contributions for the Lawyer grouping in 2012, from 3,820 contributions and 978 donors. The grouping’s all-cycle total is $59,115,033.
- Does this include every attorney who donated?
- No. Donors who listed a law-firm name often sit in other industry keys. This cell is the grouped Lawyer string only. Unitemized gifts are also absent.
- What is the typical 2012 gift size here?
- About $979 per contribution and about $3,825 per donor, from $3,740,574 divided by 3,820 and by 978. Many donors appear on more than one line (about 3.9 lines per donor).
- Is 2012 most of Lawyer giving in this database?
- No. $3,740,574 is 6.3% of $59,115,033. Other cycles hold the rest. See the industry hub for the all-years roll and the 2012 cycle hub for other employer strings that year.
FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates by employer/industry grouping and election cycle.
Top Donors in 2012
| # | Name | Total | Contributions | City / State | Occupation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BOIES, DAVID | $235,000 | 38 | NEW YORK, NY | — |
| 2 | ARSHT, ADRIENNE | $88,300 | 8 | WASHINGTON, DC | — |
| 3 | KUROWSKI, JOHN J | $71,600 | 2 | BELLEVILLE, IL | — |
| 4 | MILLER, STEVEN | $42,150 | 50 | TYLER, TX | — |
| 5 | BROWN, LAURENCE | $35,800 | 1 | LOS ANGELES, CA | — |
| 6 | PARKER, ROBERT | $35,150 | 47 | TULSA, OK | — |
| 7 | COGAN, JOHN F JR | $33,500 | 11 | LEXINGTON, MA | — |
| 8 | GOLD, STANLEY P. | $33,500 | 8 | HOLLYWOOD, CA | — |
| 9 | BRAMLETT, JEFFREY O | $32,000 | 9 | ATLANTA, GA | — |
| 10 | MILLS, ALAN K | $30,500 | 5 | INDIANAPOLIS, IN | — |
| 11 | TRAUB, BARRY | $27,850 | 17 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA | — |
| 12 | POGUE, RICHARD W | $21,000 | 10 | CLEVELAND, OH | — |
| 13 | GOLD, RICHARD | $20,236 | 43 | WESTON, MA | — |
| 14 | FEENEY, PETER | $20,000 | 4 | CASPER, WY | — |
| 15 | MAITLAND, CLAY | $18,500 | 5 | NY, NY | — |
| 16 | PALMER, DAVID | $18,350 | 26 | NEWTON, MA | — |
| 17 | GREENBERG, KATHRYN | $17,700 | 16 | NEW YORK, NY | — |
| 18 | GAMM, GORDON | $17,500 | 9 | BOULDER, CO | — |
| 19 | OLSON, RONALD L | $17,000 | 10 | SAN MARINO, CA | — |
| 20 | LEVEY, MICHAEL | $16,850 | 4 | WINTHROP, ME | — |
| 21 | SEDGWICK, ROB | $16,750 | 15 | NEW YORK, NY | — |
| 22 | VICTOR, STEVEN | $16,000 | 12 | BIRMINGHAM, MI | — |
| 23 | RICE, BRIAN | $15,750 | 22 | MINNEAPOLIS, MN | — |
| 24 | PETERS, RICHARD | $15,725 | 29 | TOLEDO, OH | — |
| 25 | WOOD, HOWARD | $15,500 | 7 | CENTREVILLE, MD | — |
| 26 | GASIOR, FRANK | $15,000 | 2 | CHICAGO, IL | — |
| 27 | MANDELL, MARK S | $14,500 | 10 | PROVIDENCE, RI | — |
| 28 | CONNOLLY, JOHN | $13,905 | 24 | ST PAUL, MN | — |
| 29 | STANFORD, SUSANNE | $13,750 | 9 | SAN DIEGO, CA | — |
| 30 | KOSHLAND, JAMES M | $13,500 | 3 | PALO ALTO, CA | — |
| 31 | DAVIS, GREGORY | $13,400 | 17 | BUFFALO, NY | — |
| 32 | WILEY, LAWRENCE | $13,250 | 16 | APPLETON, WI | — |
| 33 | KIEVE, ANNE | $13,000 | 10 | WASHINGTON, DC | — |
| 34 | EFRON, STANLEY | $12,850 | 33 | MPLS, MN | — |
| 35 | MODEL, ALLEN JOHN | $12,750 | 7 | FLOURTOWN, PA | — |
| 36 | GORDON, JAMES S | $12,150 | 8 | CHICAGO, IL | — |
| 37 | AUSTIN, WILLIAM F | $12,000 | 5 | COLUMBIA, SC | — |
| 38 | DONNELLY, MARGARET | $11,175 | 20 | FERGUSON, MO | — |
| 39 | DRISCOLL, JAMES | $11,001 | 2 | ORLANDO, FL | — |
| 40 | BRADLEY, ROBERT L MR | $11,000 | 2 | HOUSTON, TX | — |
| 41 | SHOWEN, JAMES | $11,000 | 8 | WASHINGTON, DC | — |
| 42 | SCHEUER, ELIZABETH | $10,800 | 7 | NEW YORK, NY | — |
| 43 | BENZ, JAMES | $10,550 | 4 | CEDAR RAPIDS, IA | — |
| 44 | BREWSTER, GERRY L | $10,500 | 2 | TOWSON, MD | — |
| 45 | SUTHERLAND, PAMELA K | $10,400 | 16 | TUCSON, AZ | — |
| 46 | VANN, DAVID | $10,250 | 11 | BIRMINGHAM, AL | — |
| 47 | DANIEL, ALICE | $10,200 | 26 | CAMBRIDGE, MA | — |
| 48 | CLARK, RANDALL | $10,125 | 13 | BRUNSWICK, GA | — |
| 49 | DALEY, MICHAEL | $10,000 | 9 | CHICAGO, IL | — |
| 50 | PARISH, P WILLIAM | $10,000 | 8 | SAN FRANCISCO, CA | — |
Top Recipients in 2012
| # | Committee | Total | Contributions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C00494740 | $441,028 | 321 |
| 2 | C00408088 | $235,000 | 38 |
| 3 | C00431445 | $198,771 | 370 |
| 4 | C00431171 | $98,959 | 156 |
| 5 | C00492645 | $89,550 | 12 |
| 6 | C00518282 | $85,774 | 80 |
| 7 | C00401224 | $48,706 | 99 |
| 8 | C00506022 | $47,200 | 33 |
| 9 | C00500843 | $46,862 | 63 |
| 10 | C00495358 | $44,700 | 44 |
| 11 | C00493015 | $37,150 | 23 |
| 12 | C00000935 | $37,044 | 51 |
| 13 | C00010603 | $35,625 | 62 |
| 14 | C00147686 | $34,000 | 9 |
| 15 | C00410803 | $28,250 | 21 |
| 16 | C00325738 | $22,850 | 33 |
| 17 | C00466359 | $21,000 | 10 |
| 18 | C00042366 | $20,848 | 55 |
| 19 | C00515122 | $20,250 | 10 |
| 20 | C00171330 | $20,236 | 43 |
| 21 | C00027466 | $19,300 | 18 |
| 22 | C00437889 | $19,050 | 10 |
| 23 | C00012229 | $18,500 | 5 |
| 24 | C00264697 | $18,250 | 18 |
| 25 | C00431056 | $17,575 | 20 |