Washingtonian: Top Election And Campaign Finance Lawyers

Institute For Free Speech

Staff

January 6, 2010

Last month, the print edition of Washingtonian magazine carried its rankings of top Washington, D.C. lawyers — now available online. Washingtonian’s comment preceding the list indicates a truism of the current campaign finance regime: candidates need expensive, top-flight attorneys to stay abreast of our complex political speech rules.

Running for office requires more than just printing bumper stickers and glad-handing potential donors. Individual candidates as well as political parties and organizations can run into major trouble if they don’t follow campaign-finance and ethics laws. Here are the best lawyers to keep campaigns on track.

The chosen ones in the practice of campaign finance and election law:

Jan Witold Baran, Wiley Rein

Robert Bauer, Perkins Coie

Joseph M. Birkenstock, Caplin & Drysdale

Bobby Burchfield, McDermott Will & Emery

William Canfield III

Marc Elias, Perkins Coie

Craig Engle, Arent Fox

Sonia Fois, Arnold & Porter

Benjamin Ginsberg, Patton Boggs

Laurence Gold, Lichtman, Trister & Ross

Lee Goodman, LeClairRyan

Kenneth Gross, Skadden

Ki Hong, Skadden

Brett Kappel, Arent Fox

John Keeney Jr., Hogan & Hartson

Robert Kelner, Covington & Burling

Carol Laham, Wiley Rein

James Lamb, Sandler, Reiff & Young

Cleta Mitchell, Foley & Lardner

Lawrence Noble, Skadden

Lawrence Norton, Womble Carlyle

Trevor Potter, Caplin & Drysdale

Neil Reiff, Sandler, Reiff & Young

Joseph Sandler, Sandler, Reiff & Young

Scott Thomas, Dickstein Shapiro

Michael Toner, Bryan Cave