Vice President Kamala Harris is receiving a boost as she seeks the White House from a top law firm that is a favorite of Wall Street and Big Tech, according to a report.
Attorneys and staff at Paul Weiss, a firm with ties to Google, Apple, Citigroup, and other major companies, have donated at least $1.4 million in the 2024 election cycle to Democrats, Reuters reported on Monday. That’s more than any other law firm in the United States, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group.
Meanwhile, Paul Karp, the law firm’s chairman, has launched a sprawling fundraising effort for Harris — contacting hundreds of lawyers over email to gin up support for Harris, Reuters reported. And Karen Dunn, the firm’s co-chairwoman of the litigation group and a former Obama White House lawyer, is reportedly part of Harris’s debate prep team. Dunn is the lead attorney for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, ahead of an antitrust trial set to begin in September.
“There is definitely a concern that the revolving door between the Democratic Party and Big Law serves the interests of not only the politicians but clients of the revolving-door officials,” said Jeff Hauser, who runs a group called Revolving Door Project that “scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement.”
That Paul Weiss is boosting Harris underscores how Harris is seeing significant support in 2024 from those with ties to Silicon Valley and Wall Street. More than 100 venture capitalists in July pledged their support for Harris in a letter, the New York Times reported. The New York Post reported in July that top Wall Street players, including Karp and roughly 40 others, hosted “an all-hands” video chat over Zoom to discuss support for Harris.
Harris leads former President Donald Trump by half a percentage point, according to a RealClearPolitics polling average.
Karp, a fundraiser for then-candidate Joe Biden in 2020, has a longtime relationship with Harris, Reuters reported. In 2014, while Harris was California’s attorney general, Karp and Paul Weiss represented Citigroup as it faced investigations in connection to mortgage-backed securities, the outlet said.
“I came away from that experience enormously impressed by her intellect, tenacity and creativity, and have supported her political efforts since,” Karp said.
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Other partners at his firm are supporting Harris for president. Those include former U.S. Attorneys Loretta Lynch and Melina Haag, as well as ex-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
“Donors definitely are looking for relationships that they can call in,” said Jo-Ellen Pozner, an ethics professor at Santa Clara University’s business school.