Payola Justice: How Texas Supreme Court Justices Raise Money from Court Litigants

home | table of contents | previous | next

Many employees of a single firm often make same-day contributions to the same justice. These "bundled" contributions suggest that some top partners devise a political strategy for the whole firm. Bundled contributions raise questions about whether all contributors give to their favorite candidates or simply back whomever their superiors anoint.

Consider the frenetic fundraising by Susman Godfrey lawyers in the busy second half of 1995. On July 24 of that year, 14 firm members contributed $20,600 to Chief Justice Phillips. On one day three weeks later, five members of the firm gave Justice Cornyn $6,400. A week later, four Susman Godfrey employees gave Cornyn another $6,600. After resting in September, 17 firm members ponied up $9,750 for Justice Abbott on October 10. Before leaving for the holidays, 18 members of the firm wrapped up $15,495 for Justice Abbott on December 14. These five same-day bundles from Susman Godfrey lawyers in the latter half of 1995 add up to $58,845.

While Susman Godfrey lawyers assembled the most lucrative bundles, Baker & Botts marshaled the most troops behind a single justice on one day. On November 13, 1995, Chief Justice Phillips collected $10,950 from an exquisitely choreographed line of 48 lawyers from his former firm. For an encore a month later, 32 Baker & Botts lawyers gave Justice Abbott $8,150. Chief Justice Phillips also took $14,000 from 46 Bracewell & Patterson lawyers on November 30, 1995.

Corporate Teamwork
Law firm partners are not the only ones making a bundle. On February 25, 1994, four Enron executives offered up $23,000 in Supreme Court contributions. This money took the form of two equal bundles of $11,500 each, which went to Justices Hecht and Gonzalez. A month later, these four Enron executives and a fifth colleague gave Justice Gonzalez $8,000 on April 1. Gonzalez's contributions report suggests that the justice held a gala corporate April Fool's Day fundraiser. Other bundles he received that day include:

• $8,850 from six Vinson & Elkins lawyers;
• $6,200 from 13 Exxon employees; and
• $2,550 from 12 Baker & Botts lawyers.

home | table of contents | previous | next