General Counsel political contributions from Massachusetts

Why dollar share and headcount diverge

Filter FEC individual receipts to occupation GENERAL COUNSEL and contributor state Massachusetts and the dollars are $6,002,439. That is about 36% of $16,811,333 nationally. Massachusetts’s 987 contributions are about 5% of 19,099. Its 51 donors are about 4% of 1,446. A few dozen people in one state carry more than a third of the label’s itemized money.

Average itemized gift in the Massachusetts slice is about $6,082 ($6,002,439 / 987). Average dollars per donor in the join is much higher because 51 people account for the $6,002,439. That concentration is why a join page exists: the occupation hub would hide it inside 1,446 donors, and the state hub would hide it inside every Massachusetts occupation.

GENERAL COUNSEL nationwide

The occupation string GENERAL COUNSEL covers $16,811,333, 19,099 contributions, and 1,446 donors. It is a specific legal title compared with lawyer or attorney, and the national series is correspondingly smaller. Counsel, GC, and chief legal officer — if those strings appear — are not merged here.

Even inside this tighter label, most donors (1,446 minus 51) and most receipts (19,099 minus 987) are outside Massachusetts. The state’s outsized dollar share is a property of check size in the MA cell, not a claim that most general counsel live there.

Fifty-one Massachusetts donors

Fifty-one unique donors produced 987 GENERAL COUNSEL-tagged receipts totaling $6,002,439. Repeat itemization is present. The Massachusetts campaign-finance page places this title beside lawyer, teacher, and other MA occupations so a concentrated legal string is not mistaken for all professional giving in the state.

Contributor state is the address on the receipt. A general counsel for a Massachusetts-headquartered company who lives in another state will not appear in the $6,002,439. A Massachusetts address with this occupation will. The join does not locate corporate legal departments.

Corporate headquarters in Massachusetts does not place an out-of-state general counsel in the $6,002,439. Home address on the receipt does. That is why a title associated with Boston-area firms can still miss people who commute from New Hampshire or work remotely. The join reports the FEC fields, then stops.

What the title does not authorize

GENERAL COUNSEL on a receipt is not proof of bar status, employer, or that the person signed the contribution in an official company capacity. FEC individual contributions are personal as reported. The page does not say these dollars funded a Massachusetts legal issue or a particular ticket.

Related legal occupations (lawyer, attorney) are far larger nationally and should not be added silently. Use the occupations index and other ties to compare labels. Source: FEC.gov individual contribution aggregates; occupation labels are filer-entered.

Parent tables

See General Counsel donations for the $16,811,333 national total, Massachusetts campaign finance for all MA occupations, the occupations index for lawyer and counsel variants, and all FEC ties for other occupation–state cells.

Legal-title fragments around a concentrated cell

Massachusetts GENERAL COUNSEL is a concentration cell: $6,002,439 from 51 donors, about 36% of $16,811,333 nationally, with only 987 of 19,099 gifts. Lawyer in DC, by contrast, is a mass legal title with a small DC share. The two pages should not be added into a New England-or-capital legal total. GENERAL COUNSEL is 1,446 donors nationwide; LAWYER is 19,031. Different strings, different shapes.

Average gift about $6,082 in this Massachusetts filter is the arithmetic of large itemized receipts, not a billing-rate. In-house lawyers who wrote counsel, attorney, or GC may be absent. The 51 donor keys are unique inside GENERAL COUNSEL × MA. A person who used LAWYER on other receipts still counts here only for the GENERAL COUNSEL lines.

Fifty-one donors carrying about 36% of GENERAL COUNSEL dollars is a fact about this string in Massachusetts, not a fact about the state’s bar. Lawyer, attorney, and counsel would each move the $16,811,333 and the $6,002,439 if they were merged. They are not. Cite 51 donors, 987 gifts, and $6,002,439 together so the concentration cannot be mistaken for a headcount of in-house lawyers.

Questions

How much did Massachusetts General Counsel donors give in FEC filings?

Donors listing occupation GENERAL COUNSEL with a Massachusetts address reported $6,002,439 in itemized individual contributions, from 51 donors and 987 receipts. That is about 36% of the occupation’s national $16,811,333 but only about 4% of its 1,446 donors. The join is concentrated dollars, not a census of Massachusetts GCs.

Why is Massachusetts’s dollar share so high?

Massachusetts has $6,002,439 of $16,811,333 (about 36%) from 51 of 1,446 donors and 987 of 19,099 contributions. Average itemized gift in the join is about $6,082. Large receipts from a small donor set lift dollar share far above headcount share. The table does not explain why those donors gave.

Is general counsel counted with lawyer?

No. This page uses GENERAL COUNSEL only: $16,811,333 nationally from 1,446 donors and $6,002,439 in Massachusetts from 51 donors. Lawyer and attorney are separate occupation pages. Adding them would mix different strings and different donor counts.

Did these gifts go to Massachusetts candidates?

Unknown from this join. The filter is donor state Massachusetts plus occupation GENERAL COUNSEL, not recipient. Committee receipts are required to see where the $6,002,439 from 51 donors and 987 gifts went. Those figures are FEC individual contribution aggregates with filer-entered occupation labels.