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Pay to Play

V. Paying To Play

D-1. Lawyers and Law Firms Contributed $5.4 Million
Mortgaged House
More than 5,000 attorneys affiliated with more than 1,700 law firms helped file the 3,942 Supreme Court petitions studied here. The 10 justices received $5.4 million from these attorneys, their law firms, and other attorneys in these firms. This lawyer money accounts for 81 percent of the $6.7 million in petitioner money that the justices raised.
 
 
 
Petitioners Gave Justices $6.7 Million

 
 
  • The average legal counsel contributing more than $250,000 was 6.4 times more likely than the average non-contributing counsel to have a petition accepted.

  • The average legal counsel contributing more than $100,000 was 4 times more likely than the average non-contributing counsel to have a petition accepted.

  • Across the board, the more that the petitioning counsel gave, the greater the likelihood that the court would accept its petitions.

 

Here again, there is a strong correlation between the amount of money that the petitioning legal counsel contributed to the justices and the likelihood that the justices would accept their petitions. While the justices accepted just 9 percent of the petitions filed by legal counsel that did not contribute to the justices’ campaigns, they accepted 58 percent of the petitions filed by the two firms that gave the justices more than $250,000 (Vinson & Elkins and Baker Botts). In fact, the justices accepted an astounding 74 percent of the 19 petitions filed by Baker Botts, the former firm of Chief Justice Tom Phillips.


 
 
Big Contributors Enjoy Highest Acceptance Rates
 
  Petition  
  Accepted  
  Acceptance  
  Petitioner Contributions  
Filings
Filings
Rate (%)
More than $250,000
43
25
58%
$100,000 - $250,000
149
55
37%
$10,000 - $100,000
440
115
26%
$1,000 - $10,000
693
145
21%
$1 - $1,000
409
62
15%
$0 
2,678
245
9%
All Petitions
4,412
64
15%
Data Note: In this section—and in the next one on petitioning parties—the analysis shifts from the 3,942 individual petitions studied in this report to each filing made by every petitioner. There are many more petitioner filings than petitions because a single petition can involve multiple attorneys, law firms and parties.

 
 
Contributions and Acceptance Rates
For Firms Filing More Than 10 Petitions
 
 Acceptance
 Supreme 
 Petitions 
 Contributions 
Law Firm
Rate (%)
 Petitions 
 Accepted 
To Justices
Baker Botts
74%
19
14
$279,043
Magenheim Bateman & Helfand
57%
14
8
$3,100
Vinson & Elkins
46%
24
11
$371,922
Haynes & Boone
44%
25
11
$122,185
Fulbright & Jaworski
43%
35
15
$232,625
Gardere Wynne Sewell & Riggs
42%
12
5
$83,488
Locke Purnell Rain Harrell
42%
12
5
$139,423
Strasburger & Price
38%
24
9
$101,000
Cowles & Thompson
35%
17
6
$59,875
Bracewell & Patterson
33%
15
5
$135,675
Small Craig & Werkenthin
33%
12
4
$14,401
Thompson & Knight
32%
25
8
$145,259
Brown McCarroll & Oaks Hartline
32%
22
7
$40,400
Ramey Flock Jeffus Crawford 
30%
20
6
$17,213
Crofts Callaway & Jefferson
28%
18
5
$1,950
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
27%
15
4
$69,918
Jenkens Gilchrist
27%
11
3
$60,965
Vial Hamilton Koch & Knox
25%
12
3
$49,875
Holman Hogan Dubose & Townsend
24%
21
5
$7,000
Wright & Associates
19%
16
3
$0
Clark Thomas & Winters
18%
17
3
$47,930
Cooper Aldous & Scully
17%
12
2
$2,600
Gilpin Paxson & Bersch
15%
13
2
$13,750
Carr Hunt Wolfe & Joy
0%
14
0
$5,712
TOTALS:
34%
425
144
$2,005,309

 


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